Update on Ada packages in Debian GNU/Linux

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic.brenta@insalien.org>]

Folks,

Yesterday, my Ada packages have all reached "testing" in Debian.  In a
nutshell, this means that:

- they will be in the next stable release of Debian (i.e. on the
  CD-ROMS and DVDs).  This release is code-named "Sarge" and will
  become the new "stable" release Real Soon Now(tm).  But as always,
  the only release date you will ever get from a Debian developer is,
  "when it's ready" :)

- they have passed certain quality tests, most notably to ensure no
  package is broken by them.

- they are all built using GNAT 3.15p.

For more details, please see http://www.debian.org/devel/testing.

Here is a list of the Ada-related packages that are in Debian:

Woody    testing
--------------------------------------------------------------------
  -      20021112             ada-reference-manual
1.4      1.6                  adacgi
1.0      1.8.4.2              adasockets
3.14p    3.15p                asis
19990519 19990519             gch (GNAT Style checker)
1.2.0    1.4.3a               gnade (GNU Ada Database Environment)
3.14p    3.15p                gnat (GNU Ada Translator)
3.14p    3.15p                gnat-doc
  -      5.3.gnat0.0.20030225 gnat-gdb (Ada-aware version of GDB)
3.14p    3.15p                gnat-glade (GLADE distributed systems)
3.14p    3.15p                gnat-glade-doc
  -      1.4.0                gnat-gps (the GNAT Programming System)
1.2.0     -                   gvd (the GNU Visual Debugger)
  -      20030813             libcharles0
3.14p    3.15p                libflorist-3.15p-1
1.2.8     -                   libgtkada1 (GtkAda version 1)
  -      2.2.1                libgtkada2 (GtkAda version 2)
  -      1.0                  libxmlada1 (XML/Ada)
  -      0.7.13.3             topal
                             
In addition, the two packages gnat-3.2 and gnat-3.3 provide the FSF
version of GNAT.

I believe that these packages together provide a good foundation to
build on.  With Debian, you now get a complete Ada development system
including compiler, debugger, IDEs, and several libraries, all
prepackaged and precompiled for you.  Most, if not all, packages are
available on three architectures: i386, sparc, and powerpc.

Several packages provide libraries.  For them, I always distribute
their files (*.ads, *.adb, *.ali, *.so and *.a) according to Florian
Weimer's proposed GNU Ada Environment Specification
(http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/projects/ada/gnae.php).  In addition to
this, I always provide a GNAT project file that makes it very easy to
build your applications against the libraries.

If there is software (library or application) that you would like me
to package for Debian, please tell me.  I will try to provide some of
the most popular packages.  The more people request a particular
package, the more I will consider it popular :) I will also tend to
favour well-tested, mature software over experimental releases.
However, as Debian is a volunteer effort, I cannot make any promises
unless you pay me :)

The release of Sarge is nigh!

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.