Re: Pretty-printer? (Alternatives to "gnatpp")

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Jacob Sparre Andersen" <sparre@nbi.dk> wrote in message 
news:87a8m2jlp7.fsf@adaheads.consafe1.org...
> What pretty-printers are available for Ada (83-2012)?
>
> I'm already aware of "gnatpp", but it has two disadvantages:
>
> 1) You have to have set up the environment to compile the source file,
>    before you can pretty-print it.
>
> 2) You can't get it to select the casing of identifiers on a
>    word-by-word basis (which means that I have to repeat every acronym
>    we use in the project once for every identifier it occurs in).
>
> What alternatives are there?

The Janus/Ada syntax checker (comes with the Professional Version of 
Janus/Ada) includes a pretty printer mode.

The only setup it requires is that of the entire Janus/Ada system (and 
really, it just needs to be on the path). It's a separate tool from the days 
when compilations took 5 minutes - waiting that long meant that one tended 
to start a build and then go to lunch or a coffee break - and it was really 
annoying to get back and find out that I'd left out a semicolon in the third 
file.

These days, I use it to check syntax on new ACATS tests ('cause it does the 
entire Ada 2012 grammar, Janus/Ada itself does so little more than that it 
isn't worth setting up a compile). It's alway good to get more than one 
opinion (GNAT is not perfect!).

The casing of identifiers has a number of options, one of which is to leave 
them alone program-wide. (/AS - "Same case"). We never thought of the GNAT 
idea of making everything match the declaration (and of course that would be 
a lot harder to do that as opposed to just using Title capitalization or all 
UPPER case).

I'd be a bit concerned about what it will do on newer syntax; I've tested a 
few things but we don't really have any customers who've reported problems 
in it recently so it gets a lower priority than most things.

> How do they fare compared to "gnatpp"?

Dunno, never used gnatpp (and rarely use "syntax" as a pretty printer, 
either).

                                           Randy.