Re: Ada IDE

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

I sent them an e-mail to ask about getting a version with theGUI builder -
this is the price quote I received. I assume all the customary disclaimers
apply - subject to change without notice, etc...

It is a competitive price with MSVC++, and the environment is immediately
familiar to those who know MSVC++. (It would be nice to see something
similar with GNAT - not *identical* since there are things I don't like with
the MSVC++ style - but with some of the same capabilities.)

I'm a little disappointed that the GUI builder does not seem to come with
the distribution - or if it does, it doesn't seem to be integrated with the
IDE as it is in MSVC++. (I really have not got the time just now to do a
really good evaluation of this! Eventually, I'll find that elusive Round
Tuit.) The IDE is also not nearly as spiffy - it doesn't break open package
specs etc on the left-hand-side and let you point-n-click navigate to items
within a package. I have not driven around the debugger to see if it is as
spiffy as the one in MSVC++, but then again, this is *Ada* so I wouldn't
expect to need it nearly so badly.

I ran a little "Hello World" app I wrote for GNAT through it. The program
basically attempts to display as many attributes as it can so that you can
find out about implementation details. Several things wouldn't compile.
Several other things generated constraint errors. I didn't try to analyze
all the reasons in depth (it may be "perfectly legal" for an implementation
to do it, but I've often harped about how sometimes "perfectly legal" =
"totally useless" :-) If anybody is interested, I'll post the code here.

I was a little disappointed that it didn't support Long_Long_Float.
Basically, you've only got 64 bit floats on a machine that will handle
80-bit floats. Maybe you can Roll Your Own - I didn't check. Also no
Long_Long_Integer - limited to 32 bits. If you care, there's no Short_Float
either. I don't understand these things being missing since essentially the
ARM would let you define things like Long_Long_Float = Long_Float so it
shouldn't really cost anything. At least code that used it would compile.

Fixed point attributes are also more narrow than on GNAT. Time, Modular
numbers, etc. have tighter allowed ranges/accuracies. Storage elements and
Streams look the same.

Just a FWIW kind of comparison - the math characteristics seem to be more
limited than on GNAT given the same hardware. This may allow for better
optimized code, but I would think that if you used the same size things in
GNAT, you ought to get similarly tight code - but I've never tested that
hypothesis. And in most cases, on a PC, I really don't care that much if the
resultant code is optimal - just so long as it isn't horrible.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Michal Nowak" <vinnie@inetia.pl> wrote in message
news:mailman.1005902126.22826.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> On 01-11-14 at 16:40 Marin David Condic wrote:
>
> >And no GUI builder. Rumor has it you can have the full-up Professional
> >edition for $595.00
> >
> >MDC
>
> Being a student a having GNAT with all addtions I have no need to
> buy it now. However this price sounds very attractive (or is it
> a rumour?). And it shows, that Ada compilers do not have to cost
> several thousands of dollars.