Re: Free Ada83 compiler for older Solaris/SPARC or IRIX?

[Jeffrey Creem <jeff@thecreems.com>]

Erik Baigar wrote:
> "Jeffrey R. Carter" wrote:
>> No compiler supports plot/draw; that's not part of the language. You need a
>> graphics library for that.
> 
> I have not looked into the different possibilities in detail 
> now, but what would be the easiest way if I only want to get
> a window and draw lines within this window? I.e. the only
> thing I need is a command like "draw.line(x1, y1, x2, y2);"?
> 
> X11ada? , Motif/X-Binding?, AdaGTK?
> 
>    Thanks and best regards,
> 
>       Erik.

GtkAda.

x11ada is very low level and means you will be spending a lot of time 
dealing with expose events.

Motif is a higher level toolkit and not a terrible choice.

GtkAda binds to a somewhat more modern library and 'works' under windows 
as well.

Under Linux/Solaris/unix like machines where it is supported it is very 
good. The downside will be that for older Solaris and probably for IRIX 
you will almost certainly have to compile your own Gtk libraries (not 
just the Ada part -- the libraries themselves).

While this can be done (At least for Solaris) and is not too hard if you 
know what you are doing, it can be a big deal.

If you are lucky,  you will be able to find pre-compiled libraries for a 
Gtk version compatible with GtkAda.

If you have the money, getting GtkAda from AdaCore means you will also 
get the pre-compiled Gtk libraries.

If you have more time than money, I suspect you can pull this all 
together yourself.