Re: Fun with WebAda/GNAT

[dsmith@clark.net (Doug Smith)]

In article <dewar.840313386@schonberg>, dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) wrote:

> Ken Garlington said, answering me
> 
> "> If you find that the use of paths is confusing, stick to the use of
> > -I switches to explicitly say where to look for with'ed files.
> 
> Of course, WebAda does not give you that option - all files are kept in
> a single directory. Combine that with an inability to delete or rename
> files, and a file naming mistake can really cause some excitement!
> 
> Sometimes, simple GUI interfaces can be just a little _too_ simple..."
> 
> There seems to be a disconnect here. You reported a bug, since fixed,
> which did indeed cause a strange message from a misnamed file, but that
> was simply a bug.
> 
> The issue with paths is quite different, and as you point out, irrelevant
> to the use of WebAda.

I think Ken's criticism of WebAda is valid. To get to the first release,
there were many obvious compromises, and I wondered how long until the
missing delete unit feature would become an issue.

Ken describes the worst problem, and the list of units also starts to grow
too large. The delete unit operation will be available soon. It is not as
straightforward as it sounds to have a clean interface using forms and
cgi scripts and to maintain some level of protection from accidentally
deleting someone else's file (or a predefined package specification!).

Doug Smith
dsmith@clark.net