Experiences with GPS-IDE

Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Frank Piron]

Hi,

does anyone has tried out GPS, the
IDE from ACT?

I'm a emacs-ada-mode-coder and i like
it.

But if i could enforce my coding per-
formance - why not?

Frank

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Stephen Leake]

Frank Piron <frank.piron@konad.de> writes:

> Hi,
> 
> does anyone has tried out GPS, the
> IDE from ACT?

Yes.

> I'm a emacs-ada-mode-coder and i like it.

Me too :).

> But if i could enforce my coding per- formance - why not?

Did you mean "improve"? If so, the answer is "no, it will not improve
your coding performance".

Emacs is still way more powerful than GPS. GPS requires using the
mouse (always slower than keyboard after learning), and it requires
dedicating screen real estate to stuff other than code (a cardinal sin
:).

GPS does one thing better; generate graphical representations of
withing trees, calling trees, and other "dependencies". One of these
days, Emacs will do that too :).

Oh, it also has a better browser for C++ code, but that's a separate
issue :).

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Preben Randhol]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> GPS does one thing better; generate graphical representations of
> withing trees, calling trees, and other "dependencies". One of these
> days, Emacs will do that too :).
> 
> Oh, it also has a better browser for C++ code, but that's a separate
> issue :).

If you were to compare it to other IDE's how does it measure up?

Preben

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Stephen Leake]

Preben Randhol <randhol+news@pvv.org> writes:

> Stephen Leake wrote:
> > GPS does one thing better; generate graphical representations of
> > withing trees, calling trees, and other "dependencies". One of these
> > days, Emacs will do that too :).
> > 
> > Oh, it also has a better browser for C++ code, but that's a separate
> > issue :).
> 
> If you were to compare it to other IDE's how does it measure up?

Hmm. I've used Visual Basic (a really long time ago :), and Borland
5.0 (also a while ago).

GPS is about as good as those; it provides a point-and-click
environment, not very customizable, with "project navigation", source
code colorization, integration with the compiler and debugger.

VB and Borland also came with libraries for Windows stuff; GPS
supports GtkAda as well as any other Ada library.

Since I use Emacs overwhelmingly, and am extremely biased against
using a mouse, these may not be very valid comparisons.

I did use ObjectAda for a short while; GPS seems better than that.

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Georg Bauhaus]

Stephen Leake <Stephen.A.Leake@nasa.gov> wrote:
:  and am extremely biased against
: using a mouse,

Allow yourself the Plan 9 experience and this might change.
It feels very different, and is also a good reminder of what
_could_ be done with useful mouse functions in a _productive_
"GUI".

For a poor man's variant for Unices, wily might be of some
interest: http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~oz/wily/intro.html

Q re Plan 9 (Was Experiences with GPS-IDE)

[Warren W. Gay VE3WWG]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Stephen Leake <Stephen.A.Leake@nasa.gov> wrote:
> :  and am extremely biased against
> : using a mouse,
> 
> Allow yourself the Plan 9 experience and this might change.
> It feels very different, and is also a good reminder of what
> _could_ be done with useful mouse functions in a _productive_
> "GUI".
> 
> For a poor man's variant for Unices, wily might be of some
> interest: http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~oz/wily/intro.html

Have they changed the licensing of Plan 9 yet?  The very last
that I read (quite some time ago), they could revoke your right
to use the O/S at any time (whether or not it was for personal
use). This was an unacceptable condition for me, if I am
to invest any time or effort for that platform.

-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg

Re: Q re Plan 9 (Was Experiences with GPS-IDE)

[Georg Bauhaus]

Warren W. Gay VE3WWG <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca> wrote:
: Have they changed the licensing of Plan 9 yet?  The very last
: that I read (quite some time ago), they could revoke your right
: to use the O/S at any time (whether or not it was for personal
: use). This was an unacceptable condition for me, if I am
: to invest any time or effort for that platform.

I don't see this, but INAL.
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/license.html
is fairly short, talks about binary/source distributions,
and has a GPL exhibit (for ghostscript fonts).
You are asked to make your modifications available, and
they may revoke your right to use the _Plan_9_Trademark_ iff
the quality of your stuff is below Lucent's standards.

-- Georg

Re: Q re Plan 9 (Was Experiences with GPS-IDE)

[Warren W. Gay VE3WWG]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Warren W. Gay VE3WWG <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca> wrote:
> : Have they changed the licensing of Plan 9 yet?  The very last
> : that I read (quite some time ago), they could revoke your right
> : to use the O/S at any time (whether or not it was for personal
> : use). This was an unacceptable condition for me, if I am
> : to invest any time or effort for that platform.
> 
> I don't see this, but INAL.
> http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/license.html
> is fairly short, talks about binary/source distributions,
> and has a GPL exhibit (for ghostscript fonts).
> You are asked to make your modifications available, and
> they may revoke your right to use the _Plan_9_Trademark_ iff
> the quality of your stuff is below Lucent's standards.
> 
> -- Georg

Thanks for the link. I'll take another look at it then, on
some rainy day ;-)  It seems to appear revised.

-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Mark Johnson]

Frank Piron wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> does anyone has tried out GPS, the
> IDE from ACT?
> 
Yes.

> I'm a emacs-ada-mode-coder and i like
> it.
> 
Me too. I like GPS as well for different reasons.

> But if i could enforce my coding per-
> formance - why not?
> 
Not quite sure by what you mean by "enforce". I find that basic editing
is better handled by emacs, especially the electric modes. I also find
myself trying to use emacs keystrokes every so often [sigh] but they
don't work the same.

What I do like better in GPS is the better browsing facility, auto
fixing, and the visual debugging. GPS and GVD are pretty comparable (as
I expected). The browsing - especially the visual representation of
package dependencies is helpful. The auto fix is a cute hack though I
would prefer commenting the code (instead of removal) in the case of
removing extraneous items.

  --Mark

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Preben Randhol]

Mark Johnson wrote:
> Not quite sure by what you mean by "enforce". I find that basic editing
> is better handled by emacs, especially the electric modes. I also find
> myself trying to use emacs keystrokes every so often [sigh] but they
> don't work the same.

I thought you could use emacs inside GPS?

Preben

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Stephen Leake]

Mark Johnson <mark_h_johnson@raytheon.com> writes:

> What I do like better in GPS is the better browsing facility, auto
> fixing, 

I haven't encountered "auto fixing" in GPS; what menu/mouse action
invokes this, and what does it do?

At a wild guess, it might be equivalent to my "gnat-fix-error.el"
package for Emacs, which automatically fixes minor errors in source
code reported by the GNAT compiler (insert missing ";", fix name at
end of function, add missing "with" clause, etc).

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Mark Johnson]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> 
> Mark Johnson <mark_h_johnson@raytheon.com> writes:
> 
> > What I do like better in GPS is the better browsing facility, auto
> > fixing,
> 
> I haven't encountered "auto fixing" in GPS; what menu/mouse action
> invokes this, and what does it do?
> 
If you do a compile or build, the messages window in the lower right
will get the compilation errors / warnings. If it has a wrench like icon
at the beginning of the line, click on it to apply the automatic fix.
There is also a "code fixing" menu item on the Tools menu; though that
appears to be grayed out, even when at a fixable error. A quick example
of this is to replace a := with =.

  --Mark

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Stephen Leake]

Mark Johnson <mark_h_johnson@raytheon.com> writes:

> Stephen Leake wrote:
> > 
> > Mark Johnson <mark_h_johnson@raytheon.com> writes:
> > 
> > > What I do like better in GPS is the better browsing facility, auto
> > > fixing,
> > 
> > I haven't encountered "auto fixing" in GPS; what menu/mouse action
> > invokes this, and what does it do?
> > 
> If you do a compile or build, the messages window in the lower right
> will get the compilation errors / warnings. If it has a wrench like icon
> at the beginning of the line, click on it to apply the automatic fix.
> There is also a "code fixing" menu item on the Tools menu; though that
> appears to be grayed out, even when at a fixable error. A quick example
> of this is to replace a := with =.

Ok. That is equivalent to my Emacs package, at least in general
functionality. I wonder if they cover the same list of errors.

Is it bound to a key? 

More importantly, how do I add new errors to the list of things that
can be fixed? That's really the power of Emacs. Hmm, I guess they'd
say "edit the Ada source for GPS and recompile". Maybe I'll try that
someday :).

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Frank Piron]

Hi,

thanks for all postings. I think
i will still use emacs and if its
not so expensive i will buy GPS for visua-
lization. Maybe thats a good thing
in team development.

Frank

Frank Piron schrieb:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> does anyone has tried out GPS, the
> IDE from ACT?
> 
> I'm a emacs-ada-mode-coder and i like
> it.
> 
> But if i could enforce my coding per-
> formance - why not?
> 
> Frank

Re: Experiences with GPS-IDE

[Preben Randhol]

Frank Piron wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> thanks for all postings. I think
> i will still use emacs and if its
> not so expensive i will buy GPS for visua-
> lization. Maybe thats a good thing
> in team development.

Why not wait for the public release of GPS? I don't think you get GPS
now without signing a support contract. Although you should check this
with sales at ACT.

Preben