Re: Very basic question: How to use gnatmake (not gprbuild) using external libraries?

["Jeffrey R.Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.acm.org.not>]

On 2023-06-28 01:44, Kenneth Wolcott wrote:
> 
>    1. Where do I place the SDL library from GitHub?

That is up to you. It goes in /path/to/SDL/, where you choose /path/to/.

>    2. Do I compile/install the package?

The library may have specific compilation/installation instructions. Generally 
you should follow those.

>    3. When using gnatmake do I use -I to specify where the library I'm referencing is found?

This depends on the answer to 2. If you have all the source files for the 
library in /path/to/SDL/, and have compiled them so their .ali and .o files are 
also there, then using -I/path/to/SDL/ works fine. This is simple and easy. As 
S/W engineers always try to keep things as simple as possible, this is the 
approach I tend to use.

Coders, on the other hand, like to introduce unnecessary complexity, and you 
will find lots of projects with baroque directory structures, maybe with source 
files in /path/to/SDL/src/, .ali and .o files in /path/to/SDL/lib/, test program 
source files in /path/to/SDL/test/src, their .ali and .o files in 
/path/to/SDL/test/lib/, and executables in /path/to/SDL/test/bin/. Such 
directory structures are gnatmake unfriendly, and the simple -I approach doesn't 
work. You'll have to look into the exact meaning of -I and -a, and maybe others.

>    4. Once #3 is answered, I assume that I "with package" as if the '*.ad[sb]' files were co-located with my Ada program, is that correct?

The Ada language definition is independent of how and where source and 
compilation artifacts are stored, so context clauses are necessarily independent 
of such concepts. In other words, yes. This kind of information is handled by 
the compilation options such as -I.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde
In al his lyf unto no maner wight."
Canterbury Tales
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