Re: basic questions on using GPS

[Norman Worth <nworth@comcastNOSPAM.net>]

On 7/18/2015 2:20 PM, Nasser M. Abbasi wrote:
> I never used GPS (much) before. I do not like project based IDE's
> actually, as they make me feel trapped, but have no choice here.
>
> I am little confused about something.  normally when not using
> an IDE, and want to test something, by making small program,
> I have a one folder where I keep my Ada test files,
> and then use the editor and make a new foo_nnn.adb and
> then compile it using gnatmake from command line.
>
> Now with GPS, each time I want to try something, I open
> GPS, then have to decide between these choices:
>
> 1. create new project from template
> 2. start with default project in directory ...
> 3. create new project with wizard
> 4. open existing project.
>
> I select 1, then select basic project->simple project,
> now I have to give a name to the project. name? ok, I have
> to come up with yet another name, say default_nnn, and
> hopefully this was not used before as I can't remember,
> now I have to select folder to where to create the project
> in, navigate to the folder, make new folder below it
> so that this project do not see the other source files,
> just for this one project, make yet another new folder
> name, may be same as project name? and click apply.
>
> This is all so much work for making one simple foo.adb
> each time I want to try something.
>
> using command line, I simply do
> cd my_stuff
> vi foo1.adb
> gnatmake foo1.adb
>
> and be done with it.
>
> I must be missing some simpler way to deal with GPS.
>
> All what I want is to be able to make a new main program
> and compile it and run it, without having to go through
> this process each time and having to make new
> project and new folders for each small item.
>
> Is there a way to avoid having to go through this
> process each time? I could use the last project,
> but I want to keep the earlier files and not modify
> them.
>
> thanks
> --Nasser
>
GPS has its faults.  It appears to be designed for medium to large sized 
projects, and it is awkward for small experiments.  When you have 
something that uses several packages, it begins to show its merit.  The 
GNU project manager is quite effective and versatile, but it can be 
obscure.  The GPS interface to it does a lot to simplify things, but 
this still doesn't make for a simple and convenient tool.  I think that 
if I had more experience with GPS, it could really be helpful.  But it 
certainly isn't as inviting as some of the other development tools.  For 
small experiments, I usually just create a directory and use an editor 
like kate or jedit (which are more friendly than the standard GPS 
editor) with gnatmake.