Re: Rep Spec Report with ASIS

["Jeffrey Creem" <jeff@thecreems.com>]

Yup...Except for a few minor details, that looks exactly like the kind of
thing I've
always wanted....Too bad it was work  you did at Ratheeon instead of
Rational. That
would be a cool feature to include in Ada Analyzer..



"Steven Hovater" <nh-ho@mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:Mh878.4701$KA4.1865704@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net...
> Hi all
>
> Following link describes such a tool that we wrote a few years ago when I
> was
> consulting at Raytheon.
>
>
http://info.acm.org/sigada/conf/sigada2000/private/SIGAda2000-CDROM/SIGAda20
> 00-Proceedings/Hovater-Presentation.pdf
>
> http://www.acm.org/sigada/ada_letters/dec2000/hovater-paper.pdf
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>
> "Jeffrey Creem" <jeff@thecreems.com> wrote in message
> news:bA%68.70669$Ln2.15685484@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net...
> > Another approach for an ASIS implementation that does not support this
> > capability (data representation section)
> > would be to create an ASIS program who's output is a program that
creates
> > the output you want....
> > I have not done so there may be a few snags but in principal it seems
like
> > could be done.
> > Of course it is more work than I've ever wanted (or been paid :) to
> > undertake.
> >
> >
> > "Robert Dewar" <dewar@gnat.com> wrote in message
> > news:5ee5b646.0202021451.226fab4@posting.google.com...
> > > "John Cupak" <Jcupak744@mediaone.net> wrote in message
> > news:<PMS68.69384$Ln2.15233029@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net>...
> > > >
> > > > So, I thought that there might be an ASIS program someone out there
in
> > > > "Ada Land" has written that might provide the information requested.
I
> > would
> > > > think it wouldn't be terribly hard to walk throught the
declarations,
> > find
> > > > record
> > > > type definitions, and generate a Representation Specification Report
> for
> > > > each
> > > > one - would it?
> > >
> > > It would be virtually impossible unless the ASIS port you
> > > are using supports the data representation section of the
> > > ASIS standard, and this support is of course keyed to a
> > > particular compiler. However, as far as I know, ASIS-for-GNAT is the
> > > only implementation of ASIS that
> > > supports this optional capability.
> > >
> > > The reason that this is virtually impossible is
> > >
> > > a) you would have to duplicate the entire data layout algorithms of
> > > the compiler you are using, these algorithms
> > > are often extremely extensive and complex.
> > >
> > > b) you would have to know what these algorithms are. I don't think any
> > > compiler has sufficiently complete documentation to reliably duplicate
> > > the data layout for
> > > this purpose.
> > >
> > > We find that the -gnatR report that GNAT Pro can provide is
> > > extremely useful, and a number of our customers very much
> > > rely on this tool. The advantage here is that the compiler
> > > is generating this information directly from the internal
> > > data structures after laying out the data, so the output
> > > from -gnatR is by definition exactly correct.
> > >
> > > So basically you are out of luck here if you are not using
> > > GNAT. Why not talk to your vendor and see if they can do
> > > something for you -- perhaps they have some equivalent
> > > internal tools that they can be persuaded to cough up.
> > >
> > > (I say that because we find -gnatR enormously useful for
> > > our support activities, and it is hard for me to imagine
> > > how one would deal with things if you could not easily
> > > tell how the compiler was laying things out).
> > >
> > > Robert Dewar
> > > Ada Core Technologies
> >
> >
>
>