swig news (C++/Ada binding generator)

[rod <rodkay@mullum.com.au>]

Hello again,

   After a months pause (password problem), there has been a couple of recent 
commits to the GnuAda repository at  

     https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gnuada/trunk/projects/swig-1.3.29


   Two SWIG modules now exist for Ada support; the original 'ada', which uses 
the normal SWIG wrapping approach, and a new 'gnat' module, which maps Ada 
objects to exactly correspond to the C/C++ objects. The 'ada' module is 
intended to be compiler-independent; the 'gnat' module bindings are 
tailored for the GCC/Gnat compiler family.

   The two modules are planned for inclusion into the SWIG repository, after 
the bulk of the testsuite cases have been tried. This may take some time as 
there are well over 300 test cases. Also, the modules are still only 
prototypes (ie largely hacks) and need considerable attention. Finally, the 
generated bindings themselves can stand a great deal of improvement. So there 
is still quite a bit to do.

   If anyone would like to help out with the testsuite, for either module, 
please let me know. Many test cases are small and simple. Each requires 
a 'builder' script, a gnat project file (.gpr) and a small test harness 
written in Ada to exercise the binding. It is often possible to use the files 
of an existing testcase as templates, and just substitute a few names.



regards,

Rod.