Re: Help : Ada mode problem in emacs

Re: Help : Ada mode problem in emacs

[Rolf Ebert]

>>>>> "CM" == Cheryl Marquis <cmarqui@relay.nswc.navy.mil> writes:

CM> I too have emacs questions (and am also new to emacs).  I have
CM> downloaded xemacs and the 2.12 ada-mode version.  I can get emacs to
CM> recognize my file as an Ada (in my case ".a") file automatically now
CM> and it will change the fonts according to what's specified in an
CM> example .emacs file I've received, but I can't seem to get it to do
CM> the following:

CM> 1. Actually pretty printing (shifting lines, etc).  When I click on
CM> "pretty print buffer" under the Ada menu, it tries, but then I get
CM> the error: "Searching for program: no such file or directory,
CM> aimap."

CM> In the ada-mode.el that I got along with the other ada-mode files,
CM> there's a line "ada-mode.el:(defvar
CM> ada-external-pretty-print-program "aimap"."

Replace "aimap" with the name of your preferred pretty printer program.
`aimap' itself is not a pretty printer, but a perl-script that changes
the case of keywords and identifiers (Ada Identifier case MAPping
tool).  It is written by Tom Quiggle from Silicon Graphics who posted it
here on comp.lang.ada.

CM> 2. I thought that emacs could be made to act like a language
CM> sensitive editor, i.e. I type some control sequence or push a button
CM> and I have an "if" statement template.  Is there documentation about
CM> how to do this?

Type `C-c C-t i' for the if-statement template.  `ada-stmt.el' is
intended for that purpose.  It does not extend the just typed
characters, but wants a special key sequence for every construct.  I
admit that it is not very practical, but I just copied it from the
original `ada.el'.  Statements based on abbreviations do not (yet)
exist. 

CM> Now (after all that :D ), what I'd like to know, is did I not get
CM> something I needed when I downloaded emacs-ada-mode-2.12.tar or do I
CM> need to get things like "aimap" from somewhere else?  Or do I need

As the name implies `ada-external-pretty-print-program' is the name of
an *external* program that you have to get from somewhere else.  I can
send you `aimap' if you want to (or Tom Quiggle posts it here again)

CM> to reconfigure my .emacs file?

Put that line in your `.emacs'

(setq ada-external-pretty-print-program "<name-of-my-pretty-printer>")

Most compilers come with a pretty printer. At least Alsys (now Tomson
Software Products) and VADS (Verdix, now Rational) provide such a program.

CM> We have emacs on a SUN Sparc 10 (Sun OS 4.???) and Digital Alphas
CM> (OSF1 3.2 or 3.3).

CM> Thanks for your help!

I hope that helps. Don't hesitate to ask again.

CM> Cheryl cmarqui@nswc.navy.mil

CM> P.S. I wouldn't be adverse to pointers on what else I need to do to
CM> get emacs to recognize VADs as opposed to GNAT. :-D

There is a file `ada-verdix.el' in the contrib directory of
emacs-ada-mode-2.12. 


	Rolf


	

Re: Help : Ada mode problem in emacs

[Rolf Ebert]

>>>>> "BBK" == "Byron B Kauffman" <KauffmanBB@lfwc.lockheed.com> writes:

BBK> I posted this originally on the emacs newgroup with no success, so
BBK> I'm hoping someone over here can help...

I haven't seen it on gnu.emacs.help.

BBK> We're developing Ada, running emacs (v19.??, Ada mode 1.06a) on an

I suppose `??' stands for 29 or 30.  The last two versions of Emacs (and
XEmacs 19.13) include a new ada-mode which might interfere with Lynn
Slayter's Ada mode package.  I actually never tried them both together.

BBK> SG with SPARC workstations. Initially, dired works OK, allowing me
BBK> to navigate through directories using 'f' and 'q' keys, until an
BBK> Ada file is loaded up and the buffer deleted. From that point on,
BBK> it appears as though the Ada Dired mode is goofed up because we
BBK> can't navigate back through directories - evidently, emacs thinks
BBK> the directory is a text file or something. We've renamed
BBK> 'ada-dired.el' so it isn't loaded in an attempt to circumvent the
BBK> problem, but of course now the Ada mode doesn't work at all, but
BBK> uses the 'text fill' mode.

Standard `dired-mode' works quite fine for me.  Of course you don't have
the additional functionality of `ada-dired', like invoking the (VADS)
compiler on a given file.  I never really used these features (from
ada-dired) as I got all the functionality I needed directly from
ada-mode.  

If there is enough pressure from Emacs users for an updated ada-dired, I
might consider working on it. (let's say I get more than 20 messages
within the next week asking for it)

BBK> Being new to emacs and absolutely clueless as far as LISP is
BBK> concerned, I'm asking for advice/hints/lessons learned from anyone
BBK> who might have solved this problem before.

One practical solution is to not use ada-mode-1.06a at all and just use
the built in Ada support.  

Extensions like insertion of Ada statements and following
cross-references on a mouse click can be found in
cs.nyu.edu:/pub/gnat/emacs-ada-mode-2.12.tar.gz (or one of its mirrors).
Throw away everything except `ada-xref.el', `ada-stmt.el' and the
(somewhat outdated) documentation in `ada-mode.texi'.  If you still have
problems, please mail me about them.

BBK> On a related theme, is it possible to change the Ada mode to not
BBK> highlight key words in comment statements?

Use `font-lock' instead of `hilit19'/`hl319'.  Keywords in comment areas
was the main reason to switch support from hilit19 to font-lock.


	Rolf