From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,54f3d61ea706bdc1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-20 10:30:40 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: "Jeffrey D. Cherry" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GCC 3.1 with GNAT ... Cool! Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 17:30:39 -0000 Organization: Northrop Grumman Message-ID: References: <3D1166A3.4C62DDA8@easystreet.com> User-Agent: Xnews/4.11.09 X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:26502 Date: 2002-06-20T17:30:39+00:00 List-Id: achrist@easystreet.com wrote in news:3D1166A3.4C62DDA8@easystreet.com: > Some questions: > > 1. Did you download binaries or source for all of this? (URL's?) I downloaded the source from the GNU ftp site, including the composite tar- gzip file and all the individualt tar-gzip files for version 3.1. These files can be found at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gcc/gcc-3.1; however, shortly after I had done downloaded these files, there was an announcement on CLA that MinGW had created a binary distribution of GCC 3.1. Following the announcement's suggestion, I went to SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net), found the MinGW project's page (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw) and downloaded the following files: MinGW-1.1.tar.gz bunutils-2_12_90-20020518-1.tar.gz binutils-2_12_90-info-html.tar.gz gcc-3_1-core-20020516-1.tar.gz gcc-3_1-Ada-20020516-1.tar.gz gcc-3_1-info-html.tar.gz gcc-3_1-release_notes.txt libmingwex.a libstdc++-html-USERS-3.1.tar.gz make-3.79.1-20010722.tar.gz mingw-runtime-2.0-20020430.tar.gz w32api-1.4-2.tar.gz To download these files starting from the aforementioned MinGW project page, (1) click on the "download" link for any of the listed packages and this will bring you to the file list page for the project, (2) from there, click on the desired file name and that will lead you to a page where you can select the server from which the download will be performed, (3) click on the server nearest your location and the download will begin, (4) return to the "file list page" and repeat this process for each file desired. I found out later that the libmingwex.a file was unnecessary if I installed the MinGW 2.0 runtime and the make-3.79.1-20010722.tar.gz file was also unnecessary since it was included in the MinGW 1.1 distribution. Since this initial download, the Win32 API has been updated to version 1.5 and so I would suggest getting the latest (w32api-1.5.tar.gz). If you are interested in the Pascal compiler, then I suggest going to the home site for GNU Pascal (http://www.gnu-pascal.de) and downloading the Pascal compiler component from there. > > 2. Are there step-by-step directions for setting all this up available > anywhere on-line? (URL?) (If students can do this, there must be > step-by-step directions somewhere, right?) The associated documentation for each component describes the installation process for that particular component. Generally, you extract the files in the tar-gzip file into a common directory tree on your hard disk. Some components require environment variables (such as the Ada component of the GCC). A previous post on CLA listed the steps to get the MinGW installation up and running and they worked for me. For distribution to students, I burn a CD (the student provided the CD) with a rather large set of files, all of which are freely available from the Internet. One set of files is the GNAT 3.14p distribution, another set is the GCC 3.1 distribution from the MinGW project. Typically, I add a command (batch) file that performs most, if not all, of the installation steps. I also provide a text file in the root directory of the CD that describes a manual installation, so your assumption regading "step-by-step directions" is correct. If you, or someone else, requests a copy of the steps I used, then I'll post them to CLA. Please note that the GNU Pascal compiler has its own installation program similar to most software products that run under Windows. The GNU Pascal installation will make some small changes to the registry and also requies an environment variable. Installing libraries (such as the CRT unit) requies downloading the extra files and compiling them. Some additional copying of certain files to other installation directories will also be necessary. > > 3. If there aren't step-by-step directions, wouldn't it be nice if there > were? If there aren't, I'd be willing to try to write some if you or > someone can point me toward what it takes to make it all happen. It's always nice to have "step-by-step directions" and I can provide a text description of the steps I used if requested (as I mentioned in passing in the response to point number 2 above). Generally, I find the documentation of the GCC components very well done and the GNAT documentation is particularly good. The GNAT compiler also has about the best error and warning messages I've ever seen from a compiler (and I've used quite a few in my time, nearly 20 years of reviewing safety-critical software running on a variety of different platforms). The descriptive error messages are one thing that makes the GNAT compiler an _excellent_ compiler for students. I've also found that first-time programming students pick up Ada much faster than C, C++, FORTRAN, or Java. At our school, students typically start with Ada, and then may also learn C++, FORTRAN, or Java in later classes. This seems to work well since Ada provides them with good fundamentals in software development, is very readable, and the student-friendly messages from the GNAT compiler is icing on the cake. -- Regards, Jeffrey D. Cherry Senior IV&V Analyst Northrop Grumman Information Technology