Re: Running programs using ADA

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Sat, 1 Dec 2012 01:33:14 -0800 (PST), Hans Vlems wrote:

> the language does help in this case.
> Because the mingw C compiler bindings rely on the libraries supplied
> by Microsoft.
> The systems I've got to work with have no support for the system()
> function.
> ADA can do without them and this allows me to run various command line
> programs (with several options) without the need to have access to
> cmd.exe (which is prohibited too).

Strictly speaking Ada cannot do this. The standard Ada run-time library
does not define any means to start a process for [good] reasons which are
irrelevant here.

Various existing solutions always rely on libraries, which are either
compiler vendor-specific, like in the case of GNAT.OS_Lib, or OS-specific,
e.g. Win32 bindings, or [sub]standard libraries providing functionality in
a more or less OS-independent way, like POSIX , Glib, Qt.

Note also that running processes is much more than merely spawning them.
Usually you want to get the execution status, wait for completion, attach
input/output/error pipes and so on.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de