Re: Help : Ada mode problem in emacs

[re@waporo.muc.de (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(somewhat outdated) documentation in `ada-mode.texi'.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