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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.224.171.72 with SMTP id g8mr21105457qaz.7.1374456512974; Sun, 21 Jul 2013 18:28:32 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.50.9.7 with SMTP id v7mr2258029iga.2.1374456512768; Sun, 21 Jul 2013 18:28:32 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!news.glorb.com!gh1no19975qab.0!news-out.google.com!dk8ni1022qab.0!nntp.google.com!f1no349306qae.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 18:28:32 -0700 (PDT) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=99.43.10.175; posting-account=nD_N8QoAAACgNfe5vMwm0rMAu4pgYumJ NNTP-Posting-Host: 99.43.10.175 User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: GNAT GPL is proving...educational From: Alan Jump Injection-Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 01:28:32 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:16456 Date: 2013-07-21T18:28:32-07:00 List-Id: A neophyte commentary follows...pardon me whilst I pull on my flame-retarda= nt underwear. :-) Learning Ada has its pitfalls and pratfalls, just as learning any other lan= guage. I've just run across a couple of them, thanks to the example code pr= ovided with Barnes' "Programming in Ada 2005". First off is an apparent cha= nge in coding style required by GNAT...specifically, only one full stop is = allowed in a given filename or package/function/procedure name. So, rather = than being able to say package Stacks.Vector is one must use package Stacks_Vector is and then save the file as Stacks_Vector.ads. The other unexpected (but, on reflection, totally logical) curveball is tha= t GNAT, and Ada in general, really doesn't like monolithic program files...= I would have simply blamed GNAT, but the same problem occurred when trying = to load the example source code through AdaGIDE, so it's clearly a shift in= thinking now required by Ada. Package specifications get their own .ads fi= le, everything else goes in .adb files. Coming from a background that involved FORTRAN and some basic-level Java6, = there's a definite learning curve. But I've no doubt the results will justi= fy the efforts. (Now, do I dare take that flame-retardant underwear off yet? It's itchy.) - - 73 de N5ILN Alan