Re: Inspirels Ada on cortex tutorial linker issue

[Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk>]

On Mon, 29 Aug 2016 19:49:12 +0200, Nicholas Colin Paul de Gloucester
wrote:

> Brian Drummond sent:
> 
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> |That's what gnatmake or gprbuild do - where some languages require     
> |
> |Makefiles or other out-of-the-language means to manage the
> dependencies.|

> 
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> 
> 
> Dear Brian Drummond,
> 
> Thay may be nice, but they are also out-of-the-language means.

By that definition, the compiler itself is an out-of-the-language means. 
Indeed you can see "gnatmake" as "the compiler" and ignore all lower 
level details.

Ada source code tracks its own dependencies properly (with hints in the 
form of pragma, limited with, use type where it is necessary to resolve 
circularities and ambiguities)

Having learned an allegedly smaller language instead, you sometimes find 
you also have to learn "make"(*) before you can do anything non-trivial 
with it.

(*) one of only two languages I've seen, where substituting multiple 
spaces for tabs will change the semantics. I suspect "make" was the 
inspiration for the other...

Mixing languages, you get used to that additional burden, but it's a 
surprise to have to, as the OP has, in a pure Ada program, thanks to a 
(hopefully temporary) compiler defect.

-- Brian