Re: Low level (GNAT) Ada?

[jerry@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl (Jerry van Dijk)]

In article <34C48A74.26CA@mail.connect.usq.edu.au> q9522772@mail.connect.usq.edu.au writes:

>I'd like to be able to control some purpose-built devices on the
>parallel and serial ports of my PC as well as bus cards.

Not unusual...

> I have searched
>hard through the documentation for a library that provides
>parallel/serial interfaces but they just don't exist. I haven't even
>found basic C-like outb/inb functions.

That is correct, although this has nothing to do with Ada or GNAT.
To access devices in NT your code has to run at ring 0, which means
you need a device driver for them.

Note that you can open I/O devices as files.

>Everybody keeps saying that Ada is also great for system and low level
>programming but it doesn't look like it from the Windows GNAT point of
>view.

Yes, Ada is very good at low-level programming, No, NT does not allow
you to do so in a user program. Neither can you do this in C.

Dare I say it... Yep: the easiest way to do this sort of programming
is to use a DOS compiler.

>BTW, does anyone know if it is possible to interface to the Windows DDE
>via a GNAT package and vice-versa?

Depends on what you mean. Yes, if you installed an Win32 binding you can
use it to build DDE programs the usual Win32 way. If you are trying to
find a package that offers a higher level of abstraction, I am not
aware of any freeware offerings.

--
-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
-- Consultant     | Team Ada
-- Ordina Finance | jdijk@acm.org