Re: [Q] Tools for Ada Quality and Style

[dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

Bob said

  "I'm a little surprised, Robert, that you don't prefer the tool
   approach".

I type very fast, anything that inteferes with my typing I consider
a menace that slows me down.

Note that my critical point here is that different people have different
ways of working. One of the nice things about an open environment like
GNAT is that you choose the set of tools you want according to your own
taste.

Some people like everything done for them, other people like nothing
done for them.

No one has to reformat my code -- it is ALWAYS formatted right in the
first place, my fingers just don't know how to type unformatted code.
Indeed I could never think I had "finished a device driver" if the
code was not properly formatted. As I mentioned before, most pretty
printers do not handle comments well (how could they, comment layout
has an aesthetic that is beyond simple minded tools), so I don't like
depending on them.

Discussions about what approach or tools to use are useful only to the
extent of informing people that various options exist. Arguments that
say one approach is better than another when it comes to trivial issues
like what editor to use seem fruitless to me.

The only requirement I have is that the system I have not impose on me.
I use EPM has my editor, and I find it fine, with one exception. On
the rare exeptions that I type a bit of C, EPM gets enthusiastic and
automatically inserts idiotic templates. No doubt there is a way to
suppress this, but I type C so rarely I have not bothered to find out.
Similarly I find it intolerable to have on the fly syntax checking in
an editor. But that doesn't mean I think it is a bad thng to have such
capability around -- some people find it useful. Just so long as I
can turn it off!

I realize that some people like integrated systems where everything is
decided for you, but you do give up something for this. THe ability to
pick and choose your tools can be a very valuable capability in a rich
environment where there are many tools to choose from.