Re: rename missing in Text_IO

[Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>]

"Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com> writes:

> Since the discussion started concerning Win32ada simply having way too many
> types and way too much C-ish feeling to the parameter lists, etc., my
> original idea was to put a relatively simple layer on top of Win32ada. Just
> enough so that when a string was called for, you used an Ada string - not
> some 2nd or 3rd layer subtype of a pointer to a char - or other equally
> unfriendly examples. I wouldn't want to consolidate multiple calls into
> single calls or significantly change anything about the interface - so far
> as it could be avoided. Just Ada-ize what one sees when one uses the
> Win32api. (Some compromises are in order - you'd want to change all the
> numeric return statuses into something more Ada-ish like enumerations.
> Again, its a question of where does one stop?)

That was the original philosophy of Windex. I may have gone beyond
that some in developing whole new controls.

> To that end, I'd think that Claw exceeds the spec. Claw is a
> perfectly fine tool and one might be quite happy to develop on top
> of it. I'd think that there would remain times when one would simply
> want to get at a single Win32api call without any other layers of
> abstraction beyond making the thing not quite so agonizing to use
> from an Ada perspective.

It would be interesting to hear which parts of Claw you think are "too
thick". My nomination for that category is its use of a hidden task to
serialize access to the GUI. On the other hand, I have not yet
succeeded in building a multi-tasking Windex app, so I can't really
complain! 

> Claw may be a better answer for overall development, but I was kind
> of thinking along the lines of something that would be freely
> available as a blanket over the Win32ada binding. Sort of a "binding
> to a binding". (Now we could start the GPL vs LGPL vs GMGPL debate
> along a whole new thread! :-)

Windex is _not_ built on top of the Win32Ada binding, and neither is
Claw. Part of the reason is licensing; the Win32Ada binding is
actually copyright by Microsoft, since it was built by automatic
translation from their C source. It is _not_ "freely distributable";
the license terms state that you must own a Microsoft development
environment to use Win32Ada. Windex is GMGPL.

The other part of the reason is that there is lots of stuff in Win32
that should not be used; either because it is superceded by other
parts of Win32, or there is a better Ada way.

I haven't worked on Windex in quite a while. I'll probably make
another release when GNAT 3.14p comes out, but I don't anticipate much
beyond that. I just don't seem to have the urge to write Win32 apps
any more; I may do something for my latest toy, a Palm handheld.

-- 
-- Stephe