Re: a Newbie's question

[Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org>]

Alon Rotem <alon_rotem@hotmail.com> writes:

> I need some direction about basic programming in ADA-95. I know the
> theoretical basics of the language (data types, procedures, functions,
> packages), my problem is putting it all together.

I suggest you study code written by an, um, expert in Ada95.  There are
examples to be found in the ACM patterns archive.

<http://www.acm.org/archives/patterns.html>

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I've been converting all the C++ examples in the GoF book to Ada95, and
I'm almost done...


> Which file extensions are to be used?
> What's the difference between ADB and ADS ?
> What's the relation between the filename and the main procedure's name?
> What's the relation between the filename and the package name ?
> How can I write a simple program with one main procedure which uses  a
> package?
> Can I do it all in one file? do I have to split it into files? how?
> 
> Where can i get more information about this and example programs?

The relationship between Ada program units and files isn't defined by
the language.  Read the documentation that comes with your compiler.

There are a couple of no-cost Ada compilers available, from ACT and
Aonix.

<http://www.gnat.com/>
<http://www.aonix.com/>

The articles in the ACM patterns archive come with all the code at the
bottom of the message.  I recommend you install gnatchop (a tool that's
part of the gnat compiler), and use that to separate the code in the
message into separate files.