newbie problem - how to

newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

For a class I'm taking, we're supposed to make a modification to an
existing Ada program.  I've been able to do that just fine - my problem
is with getting the program to compile on GNAT.  The instructor gave us
step-by-step instructions to compile, but it appears that one of the
commands is perhaps mistyped.  The first step is to create a library
with the following command:
amklib adalib

The system doesn't understand that command.  Does that look familiar to
anyone?  I can go on and attempt to compile my specification, body, and
main program segments, but it tells me that "buftask.ali is missing" -
and I'm assuming  .ali is a library (haven't been able to find that in
the documentation yet).

-- 
Dana Holland                        dana@nav.cc.tx.us
Director, Computer Center     (903) 874-6501   fax: (903) 874-4636
Navarro College   -  3200 W. 7th Ave   -   Corsicana, TX 75110
      http://www.nav.cc.tx.us/staff_pages/dana/dana.html
All opinions are my own and probably don't even vaguely resemble those
of Navarro College.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Chris Morgan]

Dana Holland <dana@nav.cc.tx.us> writes:

> For a class I'm taking, we're supposed to make a modification to an
> existing Ada program.  I've been able to do that just fine - my problem
> is with getting the program to compile on GNAT.  The instructor gave us
> step-by-step instructions to compile, but it appears that one of the
> commands is perhaps mistyped.  The first step is to create a library
> with the following command:
> amklib adalib

GNAT doesn't use a special file called a library, you produce library
information files just by going ahead and compiling the Ada source code.

> 
> The system doesn't understand that command.  Does that look familiar to
> anyone?  I can go on and attempt to compile my specification, body, and
> main program segments, but it tells me that "buftask.ali is missing" -
> and I'm assuming  .ali is a library (haven't been able to find that in
> the documentation yet).

buftask.ali is the Ada Library Information file (.ali) for buftask -
an Ada unit you must have a mention of somewhere in your source
code. Have you compiled every source file? You should be able to just
do gnatmake main if main happens to be the name of the main unit.

We may need more information to really help.

Chris
-- 
Chris Morgan <mihalis at ix.netcom.com> 
       Home Web Server -  http://mihalis.dyn.ml.org/index.html

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Jerry van Dijk]

Dana Holland (dana@nav.cc.tx.us) wrote:

: For a class I'm taking, we're supposed to make a modification to an
: existing Ada program.  I've been able to do that just fine - my problem
: is with getting the program to compile on GNAT.  The instructor gave us
: step-by-step instructions to compile, but it appears that one of the
: commands is perhaps mistyped.  The first step is to create a library
: with the following command:
: amklib adalib

Are you sure these instructions are meant for GNAT ? Best thing for you
to do is to go to your instructor and ask him.

Jerry.

-- 
-- Jerry van Dijk  | email: jdijk@acm.org
-- Leiden, Holland | member Team-Ada
-- Ada & Win32: http://stad.dsl.nl/~jvandyk

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

Chris Morgan wrote:

> buftask.ali is the Ada Library Information file (.ali) for buftask -
> an Ada unit you must have a mention of somewhere in your source
> code. Have you compiled every source file? You should be able to just
> do gnatmake main if main happens to be the name of the main unit.
>

Well, I tried that, and came up with this error:

+===========================GNAT BUG DETECTED==============================+
| Error detected at buftask.adb:23:28                                      |
| Please submit bug report by email to report@gnat.com                     |
| Use a subject line meaningful to you and us to track the bug             |
| Include full sources in ASCII in a format compatible with gnatchop       |
| First line of sources must be marked by an Ada -- comment line           |
| Last line of sources must be last line of email message (no signature!)  |
| See gnatinfo.txt file for more info on procedure for submitting bugs     |
| 3.10p (970814) (powerpc-ibm-aix4.1.4.0) Gigi abort, Code=999             |
+==========================================================================+
compilation abandoned
gnatmake: "buftask.adb" compilation error


I was about to send in a bug report, and then saw in the archives of this
newsgroup that it wouldn't do any good (other people's opinions, not mine).
Does this truly mean that something is wrong with GNAT, or does it mean that
I've keyed something in wrong?  The section of code looks like this, with
Line 23 marked:

task body WriteChar is
c : character;
i : integer;
begin
loop
select
when not Buffer.full=>
accept Write(ch : in character) do
c := ch;
end Write;
i := (Buffer.rear + 1) mod 10;               <-------   Line 23
delay 0.01;
Buffer.rear := i;
Buffer.empty := false;
Buffer.List(Buffer.rear) := c;
i := Buffer.count + 1;
delay 0.1;
Buffer.count := i;
if (Buffer.count = 10) then
Buffer.full := true;
end if;
or
delay 0.1;
end select;
end loop;
end WriteChar;

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

Jerry van Dijk wrote:

> Are you sure these instructions are meant for GNAT ? Best thing for you
> to do is to go to your instructor and ask him.

Actually, I'm assuming that because the student lab machine is running
GNAT.  I do intend to ask my instructor - I was just hoping I would be
able to do some work on the project this weekend.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[bob]

I used to use Meridian Ada on Interactive Unix. The command "amake" was the
"build the system" command. Perhaps this was the system the directions were
for. Definitely not right for GNAT.

cheers...bob

Jerry van Dijk <jerry@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl> wrote in article
<F21qrs.A6@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl>...
> Dana Holland (dana@nav.cc.tx.us) wrote:
> 
> : For a class I'm taking, we're supposed to make a modification to an
> : existing Ada program.  I've been able to do that just fine - my problem
> : is with getting the program to compile on GNAT.  The instructor gave us
> : step-by-step instructions to compile, but it appears that one of the
> : commands is perhaps mistyped.  The first step is to create a library
> : with the following command:
> : amklib adalib
> 
> Are you sure these instructions are meant for GNAT ? Best thing for you
> to do is to go to your instructor and ask him.
> 
> Jerry.
> 
> -- 
> -- Jerry van Dijk  | email: jdijk@acm.org
> -- Leiden, Holland | member Team-Ada
> -- Ada & Win32: http://stad.dsl.nl/~jvandyk
> 

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Chris Morgan]

Dana Holland <dana@nav.cc.tx.us> writes:

> Well, I tried that, and came up with this error:
> 
> +===========================GNAT BUG DETECTED==============================+
> | Error detected at buftask.adb:23:28                                      |
> | Please submit bug report by email to report@gnat.com                     |
> | Use a subject line meaningful to you and us to track the bug             |
> | Include full sources in ASCII in a format compatible with gnatchop       |
> | First line of sources must be marked by an Ada -- comment line           |
> | Last line of sources must be last line of email message (no signature!)  |
> | See gnatinfo.txt file for more info on procedure for submitting bugs     |
> | 3.10p (970814) (powerpc-ibm-aix4.1.4.0) Gigi abort, Code=999             |
> +==========================================================================+
> compilation abandoned
> gnatmake: "buftask.adb" compilation error
> 
> 
> I was about to send in a bug report, and then saw in the archives of this
> newsgroup that it wouldn't do any good (other people's opinions, not mine).
> Does this truly mean that something is wrong with GNAT, or does it mean that
> I've keyed something in wrong? 


Your program may have an error in it from your typing or otherwise,
however one thing I can be certain of is that you have found a bug in
your version of GNAT. My opinion on this is that yes you should report
the bug exactly as indicated. My own personal experience of GNAT
support (provided commercially by ACT) is entirely positive, and it is
likely they will fix the bug eventually or even let you know it's
fixed in a forthcoming version. 

I notice that the version you use appears to be powerpc-ibm-aix4.1.4.0
which is not one of the most popular - have you considered installing
an up-to-date GNAT on a different computer in your lab (perhaps a
Linux or Windows NT machine?). I expect there may be some differences
since the error message mentions Gigi which (if memory serves) has to
do with the tasking implementation and is therefore at least a little
different on each platform. It might be that the NT version has no
problems analysing your code and either building an executable for you
or diagnosing a problem with your code. 

Good luck.

Chris
-- 
Chris Morgan <mihalis at ix.netcom.com> 
       Home Web Server -  http://mihalis.dyn.ml.org/index.html

Re: newbie problem - how to

[dewar]

In article
<AB859D6EEAE610D8.6A8A3E47A1B005EF.69A72E48756C3246@library
-proxy.airnews.net>,
  Dana Holland <dana@nav.cc.tx.us> wrote:
> >
>
> Well, I tried that, and came up with this error:
>
> +===========================GNAT BUG
DETECTED==============================+
> | Error detected at buftask.adb:23:28
|
> | Please submit bug report by email to report@gnat.com
|
> | Use a subject line meaningful to you and us to track
the bug             |
> | Include full sources in ASCII in a format compatible
with gnatchop       |
> | First line of sources must be marked by an Ada --
comment line           |
> | Last line of sources must be last line of email message
(no signature!)  |
> | See gnatinfo.txt file for more info on procedure for
submitting bugs     |
> | 3.10p (970814) (powerpc-ibm-aix4.1.4.0) Gigi abort,
Code=999             |
>
+==========================================================
================+
> compilation abandoned
> gnatmake: "buftask.adb" compilation error
>
> I was about to send in a bug report, and then saw in the
archives of this
> newsgroup that it wouldn't do any good (other people's
opinions, not mine).

  If by "wouldn't do any good", you mean that you will
  not get immediate help from us, that is correct, Ada
  Core Technologies can only provide this service for
  supported customers. So it won't do *you* any *immediate*
  good.

  However, we do look at all bug reports, and all such
  errors get fixed in future versions (if they are not
  fixed already). So sending in bug reports most certainly
  does do good for the *gnat user community* in the *long
  run*, so there is definitely something to be gained by
  taking the effort to send in a bug report.

  We have got lots of such bug reports in the past from
  unsupported users, and almost all have been fixed at
  this stage.

  Please note that if you do send in a bug report, it
  must have the *full* sources, and follow the directions
  in the bug box.

> Does this truly mean that something is wrong with GNAT,
or does it mean that
> I've keyed something in wrong?  The section of code looks
like this, with

  It certainly means something is wrong with the version of
  GNAT you are using, it may well also mean that you keyed
  in something wrong because it is sometimes the case that
  incorrect code can trigger a bug, so it is reasonable to
  look at the source at that point. You gave only part of
  your full sources from which it is hard to say anything
  anyway.


Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Re: newbie problem - how to

[dewar]

In article <dale-0811981848330001@dale.ppp.cs.rmit.edu.au>,
  dale@cs.rmit.edu.au (Dale Stanbrough) wrote:
> The problem is with Gnat, not your code, but if you want
> anyone to help you
> i would suggest indenting your code. Look at _any_ text
> book to get
> some idea of what to do.


You might want to use the -gnatr switch which forces the
use of proper RM style indentation!

Note that Dale was not suggesting that the lack of
indentation per se caused GNAT to detect an internal
inconsistency, but it is certainly the case that if
this bug was triggered by an error in your code, you
have a far better chance of having people help you find
it if you indent your code properly.

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies



-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Re: newbie problem - how to

[bill_so]

any one who writes code that looks like this, should not be writing code !

Bill.

>
> task body WriteChar is
> c : character;
> i : integer;
> begin
> loop
> select
> when not Buffer.full=>
> accept Write(ch : in character) do
> c := ch;
> end Write;
> i := (Buffer.rear + 1) mod 10;               <-------   Line 23
> delay 0.01;
> Buffer.rear := i;
> Buffer.empty := false;
> Buffer.List(Buffer.rear) := c;
> i := Buffer.count + 1;
> delay 0.1;
> Buffer.count := i;
> if (Buffer.count = 10) then
> Buffer.full := true;
> end if;
>or
> delay 0.1;
> end select;
> end loop;
> end WriteChar;
>
 

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

Dale Stanbrough wrote:
> 

> Gnat actually has a bad taste detector, and found that trying to read
> your unindented source code left a bad taste in it's mouth :-).

I originally keyed it into a PC-based Ada package, and it *was*
indented.  I lost the indentation when I FTPed it to the Unix box.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

dewar@gnat.com wrote:

> You might want to use the -gnatr switch which forces the
> use of proper RM style indentation!

Thanks for the tip.

> 
> Note that Dale was not suggesting that the lack of
> indentation per se caused GNAT to detect an internal
> inconsistency, but it is certainly the case that if
> this bug was triggered by an error in your code, you
> have a far better chance of having people help you find
> it if you indent your code properly.

Yes, I understood what he was suggesting.

And I will send in the bug report tomorrow.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

bill_so@hotmail.com.nospam wrote:
> 
> any one who writes code that looks like this, should not be writing code !

As I've already explained, the indentation was originally there...

You know, when someone asks a question in an area where I'm skilled, I
don't attempt to make them feel like an idiot.  I either answer the
question, or politely explain why I can't answer it - or, if I simply
don't feel like being bothered, I don't post a response at all. 
"Newbies" have to learn somewhere - as far as I know, there is no one on
this planet who was born with complete knowledge of Ada, C++, COBOL, or
any other language.  I think it's very sad that people who want to learn
can't afford to ask a question of experienced users because of the risk
of being ridiculed.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dale Stanbrough]

Dana Holland  wrote:

" I was about to send in a bug report, and then saw in the archives of this
  newsgroup that it wouldn't do any good (other people's opinions, not mine).
  Does this truly mean that something is wrong with GNAT, or does it mean that
  I've keyed something in wrong?  The section of code looks like this, with
  Line 23 marked:"

Gnat actually has a bad taste detector, and found that trying to read
your unindented source code left a bad taste in it's mouth :-).


 task body WriteChar is
 c : character;
 i : integer;
 begin
 loop
 select
 when not Buffer.full=>
 accept Write(ch : in character) do
 c := ch;
 end Write;
 i := (Buffer.rear + 1) mod 10;               <-------   Line 23
 delay 0.01;
 Buffer.rear := i;
 Buffer.empty := false;
 Buffer.List(Buffer.rear) := c;
 i := Buffer.count + 1;
 delay 0.1;
 Buffer.count := i;
 if (Buffer.count = 10) then
 Buffer.full := true;
 end if;
or
 delay 0.1;
 end select;
 end loop;
 end WriteChar;



seriously i'm not even going to waste my time trying to read this. Life is
just too short to be trying to read this.

The problem is with Gnat, not your code, but if you want anyone to help you
i would suggest indenting your code. Look at _any_ text book to get 
some idea of what to do.

dale

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Chris Morgan]

Dana Holland <dana@nav.cc.tx.us> writes:

> > Gnat actually has a bad taste detector, and found that trying to read
> > your unindented source code left a bad taste in it's mouth :-).
> 
> I originally keyed it into a PC-based Ada package, and it *was*
> indented.  I lost the indentation when I FTPed it to the Unix box.

If the code is just an exercise I could run it through gnat 3.10 here
on my Linux box to see if it has the same error.

-- 
Chris Morgan <mihalis at ix.netcom.com> 
       Home Web Server -  http://mihalis.dyn.ml.org/index.html

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Chris Morgan]

Dana Holland <dana@nav.cc.tx.us> writes:

> bill_so@hotmail.com.nospam wrote:
> > 
> > any one who writes code that looks like this, should not be writing code !
> 
> As I've already explained, the indentation was originally there...

here we go - cut it into emacs, select the whole buffer, M-x
indent-region, and bingo :


task body WriteChar is
   c : character;
   i : integer;
begin
   loop
      select
	 when not Buffer.full=>
	   accept Write(ch : in character) do
	      c := ch;
	   end Write;
	   i := (Buffer.rear + 1) mod 10;               <-------   Line 23
	     delay 0.01;
	   Buffer.rear := i;
	   Buffer.empty := false;
	   Buffer.List(Buffer.rear) := c;
	   i := Buffer.count + 1;
	   delay 0.1;
	   Buffer.count := i;
	   if (Buffer.count = 10) then
	      Buffer.full := true;
	   end if;
      or
	 delay 0.1;
      end select;
   end loop;
end WriteChar;


> 
> You know, when someone asks a question in an area where I'm skilled, I
> don't attempt to make them feel like an idiot.  I either answer the
> question, or politely explain why I can't answer it - or, if I simply
> don't feel like being bothered, I don't post a response at all. 
> "Newbies" have to learn somewhere - as far as I know, there is no one on
> this planet who was born with complete knowledge of Ada, C++, COBOL, or
> any other language.  I think it's very sad that people who want to learn
> can't afford to ask a question of experienced users because of the risk
> of being ridiculed.

Agreed, but this group does quite well normally.

Chris

-- 
Chris Morgan <mihalis at ix.netcom.com> 
       Home Web Server -  http://mihalis.dyn.ml.org/index.html

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Jerry van Dijk]

Dale Stanbrough (dale@cs.rmit.edu.au) wrote:

: Gnat actually has a bad taste detector, and found that trying to read
: your unindented source code left a bad taste in it's mouth :-).

This happened to me too, when a mailer was kind enough to remove all
those strange TAB character before sentences.

Don't be so fast blaming a person, when a program can be blaimed :-)

Jerry.
-- 
-- Jerry van Dijk  | email: jdijk@acm.org
-- Leiden, Holland | member Team-Ada
-- Ada & Win32: http://stad.dsl.nl/~jvandyk

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Mark McKinney]

Dana Holland wrote:
> I originally keyed it into a PC-based Ada package, and it *was*
> indented.  I lost the indentation when I FTPed it to the Unix box.

So is the problem with the Unix box or the PC ?


================================================
== Mark D.McKinney
== Software Engineer
== Ricciardi Technologies Incorporated (RTI)
== 10560 Main Street Suite 417
== Fairfax, VA 22030
== Phone: 703.293.9662 Fax: 703.293.9664
== email: mark.mckinney@rti-world.com
== http://www.rti-world.com
== RTI GSA Number: GS-35F-0014J
================================================

Re: newbie problem - how to

[bob_ev]

In article <F25G6o.5L@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl>, jerry@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl  
>
>This happened to me too, when a mailer was kind enough to remove all
>those strange TAB character before sentences.
>

using TABS in code is very very very bad idea.

please, no tabs in code.

Bob
 

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Dana Holland]

Mark McKinney wrote:
> 
> So is the problem with the Unix box or the PC ?

As far as the program functioning, I would say the problem is almost
definitely with the implementation of GNAT on my Unix box - the same
code has compiled on two other Unix boxes.  It also compiles on the PC
version of Ada.

As far as losing my indented code when I FTPed it - ?

-- 
Dana Holland                        dana@nav.cc.tx.us
Director, Computer Center     (903) 874-6501   fax: (903) 874-4636
Navarro College   -  3200 W. 7th Ave   -   Corsicana, TX 75110
      http://www.nav.cc.tx.us/staff_pages/dana/dana.html
All opinions are my own and probably don't even vaguely resemble those
of Navarro College.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[dennison]

In article <729bov$h06@drn.newsguy.com>,
  bob_ev@hotmail.nospam.com wrote:
> In article <F25G6o.5L@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl>, jerry@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl
> >
> >This happened to me too, when a mailer was kind enough to remove all
> >those strange TAB character before sentences.
> >
>
> using TABS in code is very very very bad idea.
>
> please, no tabs in code.

Unfortunately some (evil) editors actually toss them in on their own on the
theory that it saves characters.

I have noticed that the Deja-news poster seems to remove formatting on
occasion too. As near as I can tell it only happens on pasted text, not
handwritten. Most annoying.

Anyway, having had it happen to me on occasion, I always assume the posting
s/w had a problem.

--
T.E.D.

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Robert A Duff]

dennison@telepath.com writes:

> Unfortunately some (evil) editors actually toss them in on their own on the
> theory that it saves characters.

...which has got to be one of the stupidest data-compression techniques
ever invented!

It takes a little effort to make Emacs eliminate tabs, but it's not that
hard.  But be careful not to untabify any Makefiles!  :-(

- Bob
-- 
Change robert to bob to get my real email address.  Sorry.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Matthew Heaney]

dennison@telepath.com writes:

> > using TABS in code is very very very bad idea.
> >
> > please, no tabs in code.
> 
> Unfortunately some (evil) editors actually toss them in on their own on the
> theory that it saves characters.
> 
Throw this line in your .emacs file:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

and life is good...

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Matthew Heaney]

Robert A Duff <bobduff@world.std.com> writes:

> dennison@telepath.com writes:
> 
> > Unfortunately some (evil) editors actually toss them in on their own on the
> > theory that it saves characters.
> 
> ...which has got to be one of the stupidest data-compression techniques
> ever invented!
> 
> It takes a little effort to make Emacs eliminate tabs, but it's not that
> hard.  But be careful not to untabify any Makefiles!  :-(

Use the command 
 
M-x untabify

to get rid of existing tabs.


Put this line in your .emacs file:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

so you'll never put a tab (which are quite evil, IMHO) in your file
again.

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Matthew Heaney]

Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org> writes:

> Robert A Duff <bobduff@world.std.com> writes:
> > It takes a little effort to make Emacs eliminate tabs, but it's not that
> > hard.  But be careful not to untabify any Makefiles!  :-(
> 
> Use the command 
>  
> M-x untabify
> 
> to get rid of existing tabs.

I should also have said that the untabify command works on a region.
You can mark the whole buffer by using

  C-x h

and then untabifying (the whole buffer) via

  M-x untabify

Re: newbie problem - how to

[Robert I. Eachus]

   dennison@telepath.com writes:

   > Unfortunately some (evil) editors actually toss them in on their
   > own on the theory that it saves characters.

In article <m367cgobkh.fsf@mheaney.ni.net> Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org> writes:

  > Throw this line in your .emacs file:
  > (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
  > and life is good...

  But he was talking about e(vi)l editors. ;-)   (Actually the most
evil is Microsoft Word, but even there you can turn enough silliness
off to insert code into documents without having your spelling and
capitalization corrected.)
--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...

Re: newbie problem - how to

[John McCabe]

eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) wrote:

>  But he was talking about e(vi)l editors. ;-)   (Actually the most
>evil is Microsoft Word, but even there you can turn enough silliness
>off to insert code into documents without having your spelling and
>capitalization corrected.)

Could have fooled me :-)

-- 
Best Regards
John McCabe
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Marconi Electronic Systems
Simulation & Training Division
=====================================================================
Not necessarily my company or service providers opinions.
=====================================================================