Ada IDE [was: what about having ada compile ada on the fly?]

[Nick Roberts <nick.roberts@acm.org>]

cl1motorsports wrote:

> I've seen that there are discussions about enhancing the current ada95 
> spec. I was interested to know if there has been any talk of 
> implementing an api for compiling ada code. I've read that some 
> languages implement this feature(i think one was smalltalk), and i could
>  see how that would be very useful for making an IDE that would load 
> modules or scripts on the fly. I dunno much about the topic yet, my 
> "Dragon Book" compiler book hasn't gotten here for Christmas yet. I have
>  ideas for an IDE for linux and customizing the IDE with scripts that 
> were compiled on the fly sounded like a good idea. I dunno just a 
> thought *shrug*.

This is not relevant to the current revision process for the language
standard (which was separated in its concern from an APSE/IDE early on).
However, there is a secondary standard called ASIS, which I suggest you
look into.

There is a project called AdaCL which you ought to look at. There is also a
command interpreter called BUSH which is based on the Ada syntax, and there
was (a long time ago, in a galaxy far away ...) a STARS (should that be
STAR WARS? :-) command interpreter -- I think it was titled 'ACL' -- whose
syntax was based on Ada, which was intended to be a way of prototyping and
testing Ada code quickly before moving into a compiled environment.

Many people use an editor with its own scripting language (I guess EMACS,
with its own LISP, is the most famous). There are too many scripting
languages already in existence. I quite like the idea of an IDE written in
Ada (and compiled into native code) whose source code is available, so that
it can be customised by the (presumably Ada programmers!) who use it.

I feel a really great Ada IDE would provide great basic tools (editor,
build manager, revision control, code browser, debugger, documentation
system), in (Ada!) source code form, designed in a very modular way (and
documented well enough) so as to make them easy to adapt to specific needs.

-- 
Nick Roberts
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