Re: Rep Spec Report with ASIS

["Steven Hovater" <nh-ho@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
>
>