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From: ka@socrates.hr.att.com (Kenneth Almquist)
Subject: Re: GNAT good for learning?
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References: <1994Nov30.191822.20165@roxi.rz.fht-mannheim.de>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 01:42:56 GMT
Date: 1994-12-01T01:42:56+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Dirk Zoller <duz@roxi.rz.fht-mannheim.de> asked:
> How suitable is the GNAT compiler (on Linux or OS/2) for learning Ada?

Pretty good.  The implementation is not complete, but the features
you are most likely to use as a beginner are all there.  Basicly,
the negatives are:

1)  Like any program under development, it contains bugs.  Of course,
    even commercial Ada compilers contain bugs; the difference is that
    you are unlikely to encounter them when writing simple programs.

2)  Gdb doesn't understand Ada yet, although you can use gdb on GNAT
    programs with some effort.

On the positive side, the GNAT compiler produces high quality error
messages for compile time errors.  GNAT runs on both Linux and OS/2.
				Kenneth Almquist