From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,76026d32b9ed9f48 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: mcneills@landcare.cri.nz (Stephen McNeill) Subject: Re: Windows and Ada Date: 1995/04/02 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 100649463 references: organization: Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1995-04-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article "(No Name)" writes: >Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 09:20:00 EDT >From: "(No Name)" >Subject: Re: Windows and Ada > >Cameron writes: >I was going to try some windows programing in Ada and was >wondering what the best way to go about it was. i.e. > > - Are there libraries available. Do I have to call the Windows >API? >. >. >I have a Meridian compiler for DOS(4.???), are there any compilers that >run under windows? It is not impossible to generate Windows code from the Meridian DOS compiler, but it would be very difficult, because you would need to provide the bindings for Windows. Meridian produced a Windows version of the compiler somewhat after the last DOS update and they addressed all these issues for you. That product has quite a nice interface to using Windows, with a few useful generics to make simple programs easy to get up and going. As usual, however, in order to do something non-trivial, you need to invest in Windows, which can be hard work. The Windows compiler (called OpenAda) is bundled with Wilson Windoware's WinEdit. This is a fair attempt to integrate the edit-compile-find- stuffup-bind-run cycle. I am unsure, offhand, whether the calling technique changes in the Windows version of the compiler. This could another (ahem) difficulty - which is an understatement The other slight problem is that Meridian got absorbed, and no longer can supply the DOS or Windows compiler. Various stories abound in this newsgroup that you can/can't get one of the few remaining copies. I leave those people to deal with that issue... In response to the original query, someone replied: > >... stuff ommitted > > It is my opinion that if you don't do this you will have a >product, perhaps written in Ada, that will be self-satisfying >_BUT_ will be an orphan this fall (in the northern hemisphere and >this spring in the southern hemisphere :-) ). > Some technical things I recall are: >You must have true 32 bit code. >You must have an installer AND uninstaller. >You must support long filenames. >There are a few others I don't understand. Well, this may be true, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree too strongly, but I would not strongly agree either. As a comment, if one's application is so sensitive that it relies on Windows-95 then I would be very reticent to invest the time in the product itself, simply because it may be too much of a risk. It all depends on what the original poster had in mind. If a simple in-house application - then Windows-95 is not much use at all. If it is a commercial product looking for intensive consumer buying, then the situation is somewhat different. In our applications we strive for compiler, environment and target independence. We don't do this for any other reason than that we can't trust any particular operating system or environment for the life of our applications. Hence the stated advice of.. >Don't pick a programming language - pick a language tools vendor >else you risk being unable to have a Win 95 certified product. ...is about the reverse of what we do. However, as they say, YMMV. Stephen ----- Stephen McNeill Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd Box 38-491 Wellington Mail Centre New Zealand Phone: +64-4-5690183 FAX: +64-4-5690181 Internet: mcneills@landcare.cri.nz