GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[munnoch]

Hi,
I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. with 
information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?

ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome comments 
regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a GUI if that 
would be beneficial =)

Peace, Newbie signing out.

--They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better tour 
operators ... 

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[stephane richard]

Hi Newbie (for lack of a better name ;-).

http://www.adapower.com/gwindows/ has one of the best windows bindings for 
Ada so far. but even at that, I would recommend learning about Ada itself 
first.

AdaPower has some good books and so does my website http://www.adaworld.com 
in the learning center.

Hope this helps.

Stephane Richard
"Ada World" webmaster
http://www.adaworld.com

"munnoch" <munnoch@btinternet.com> wrote in message 
news:cndk6g$gjo$1@titan.btinternet.com...
> Hi,
> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. with 
> information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
>
> ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome 
> comments regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a GUI 
> if that would be beneficial =)
>
> Peace, Newbie signing out.
>
> --They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better tour 
> operators ...
> 

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[tmoran]

>http://www.adapower.com/gwindows/ has one of the best windows bindings for
  As you might imagine, many people have wanted to do Windows with Ada and
many good bindings are available.  www.adapower.com has a section, IIRC,
specifically on Windows bindings.  There are very low-level ones like
Win32Ada, ones for introductory use like JEWL, volunteer supported ones
like GWindows, small ones like the free demo version of CLAW, and large
ones with a physical manual and guaranteed support like the commercial
version of CLAW, and others.  For an overview of some of the
considerations in designing one such binding, see the Tri-Ada paper "CLAW,
a High-Level, Portable, Ada 95 Binding for Microsoft Windows", by Randy
Brukardt and myself, at www.rrsoftware.com

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[Jeffrey Carter]

munnoch wrote:

> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. with 
> information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?

For a beginner, I'd recommend JEWL or Win_IO. For more advanced use, you 
have many choices, including GtkAda, which is portable to several 
platforms, including Windows and Linux. Adapower.com and adaworld.com 
are good places to look.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Every sperm is sacred."
Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
55

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[stephane richard]

"Jeffrey Carter" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message 
news:%Gwmd.28174$KJ6.1336@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> munnoch wrote:
> -- 
> Jeff Carter
> "Every sperm is sacred."
> Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
> 55
>
And every ovarian egg a sperm's sanctuary ;-).   no flame I just had to do 
it ;-). hehe 

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[Jerry Petrey]

munnoch wrote:

> Hi,
> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. with
> information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
>
> ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome comments
> regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a GUI if that
> would be beneficial =)
>
> Peace, Newbie signing out.
>
> --They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better tour
> operators ...

Like Jeff, I would recommend JEWL to start.  It has a nice tutorial and is
rather easy to learn and use.
You can build some nice GUIs with it.  Claw is more powerful but requires a
little more learning curve.
It is well worth using after you gain more proficiency in Windows applications
and Ada in general.

Jerry
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Jerry Petrey   -   Senior Principal Systems Engineer
-- Navigation (GPS/INS), Guidance, & Control
-- Raytheon Missile Systems  - Member Team Ada & Team Forth
-- NOTE: please perform appendectomy on email address before replying
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[Bernd Specht]

"munnoch" <munnoch@btinternet.com> wrote in
news:cndk6g$gjo$1@titan.btinternet.com: 

> Hi,
> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc.
> with information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
> 
> ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome
> comments regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a
> GUI if that would be beneficial =)
> 
> Peace, Newbie signing out.
> 
> --They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better
> tour operators ... 
> 


You are a newbie to what? To Ada, to GUI-programming or to programming at 
all?

If you are experienced with C and have knowledge with Win-Api, then you 
should use the win32-Ada-bindings. This would be very similar to C-Api-
programming.

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[munnoch]

Bernd Specht => Programming in general, hence my general use of the word 
newbie.
Others => Thanks.

=)

"Bernd Specht" <Bernd.Specht@gmx.com> wrote in message 
news:Xns95A4BF698F978BerndSpechgmxcom@151.189.20.10...
> "munnoch" <munnoch@btinternet.com> wrote in
> news:cndk6g$gjo$1@titan.btinternet.com:
>
>> Hi,
>> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc.
>> with information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
>>
>> ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome
>> comments regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a
>> GUI if that would be beneficial =)
>>
>> Peace, Newbie signing out.
>>
>> --They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better
>> tour operators ...
>>
>
>
> You are a newbie to what? To Ada, to GUI-programming or to programming at
> all?
>
> If you are experienced with C and have knowledge with Win-Api, then you
> should use the win32-Ada-bindings. This would be very similar to C-Api-
> programming. 

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[Bernd Specht]

"munnoch" <munnoch@btinternet.com> wrote in
news:cngajl$6so$1@titan.btinternet.com: 

> Bernd Specht => Programming in general, hence my general use of the
> word newbie.
> Others => Thanks.
> 
> =)
> 


Hi,

in this case I would suggest, that you first start with console programming 
until you get some experience with programming in general and the Ada 
language in special.

I think it would be too much at a time if you want learn all at once: 
programming, Ada, *and* a GUI system. Maybe you will become frustrated soon.

Switch to GUI development if you've got some experience. 

If you want concentrate on Windows *and* Ada then look at GWindows. If you 
think about writing (Windows-)GUI not only with Ada but maybe with Pascal or 
C, too, then look at the pure Win32-Api which is used very similar with 
these other languages. If you think of (maybe one day in the far future) 
writing for Windows *and* Linux, then have a look at GTK which allows you to 
write portable GUIs.

I wish you much success.

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[David Botton]

You should take a look at GNAVI - http://www.gnavi.org

GNAVI is the Open Source answer to Visual Basic and Delphi

The full IDE is being created now and a working prototype will be 
available in the next few weeks.

In the interim it includes:

GWindows - An easy to use for beginners and highly extendable for the 
advanced, full featured binding to Win32 that is being ported to Mac OS 
X and Gtk
GNATCOM - For Active X control creation and use
GNAVI ICG - A tool to generate or modify a GWindows based application 
based on an XML spec

The Mac OS X port is in progress, the GTK port will likely start in a 
few months.

David Botton
http://www.gnavi.org


On 2004-11-16 14:25:04 -0500, "munnoch" <munnoch@btinternet.com> said:

> Hi,
> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. 
> with information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
> 
> ps, as stated in the Subject, i'm a newbie at this, so i'll welcome 
> comments regarding my need for more practise with ADA before trying a 
> GUI if that would be beneficial =)
> 
> Peace, Newbie signing out.
> 
> --They say time travel is impossible, I say we find ourselves better 
> tour operators ...

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[David Botton]

As GWindows is going toward multi platform now (already started on Mac 
OS X), if you are looking for Windows now and Linux and Mac later, 
GWindows is a superior solution as it offers a true native binding to 
the host OS's toolkits.

It also happens to be extremely easy to use even for a beginner, the 
GNAVI ICG already allows complex GUIs to be created and worked on 
easily with XML specs (the GNAVI IDE / GUI Builder is being built with 
it).

David Botton
http://www.gnavi.org


On 2004-11-16 19:11:39 -0500, Jeffrey Carter <spam@spam.com> said:

> munnoch wrote:
> 
>> I was wondering if any of you guys could point me to sites/books/etc. 
>> with information about making a GUI (for Windows) for an ADA program?
> 
> For a beginner, I'd recommend JEWL or Win_IO. For more advanced use, 
> you have many choices, including GtkAda, which is portable to several 
> platforms, including Windows and Linux. Adapower.com and adaworld.com 
> are good places to look.

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[David Botton]

I disagree. If he is familiar with Win32 programming and C then 
GWindows or CLAW are still far better answers. I have many x-MFCers 
using GWindows now, and once the GNAVI IDE is done, I expect a whole 
lot more :-)

In particular I would recommend to such a person to study the GWindows 
bodies to see how to do advanced bindings to C that make full use of 
Ada instead of just try and copy the C like header interfaces. In 
general I have found very few times other than for copying constants 
that I have ever even wanted a thin Ada binding to C as it is always 
the worst way to interface to C.

So starting off with an Ada library is certainly a better way to go.

David Botton
GNAVI the Open Source Answer to Delphi and the Visual Dark Side!
http://www.gnavi.org


On 2004-11-17 12:49:17 -0500, Bernd.Specht@gmx.com (Bernd Specht) said:
> 
> If you are experienced with C and have knowledge with Win-Api, then you 
> should use the win32-Ada-bindings. This would be very similar to C-Api-
> programming.

Re: GUI programming --a hopeful newbie =)

[David Botton]

> in this case I would suggest, that you first start with console 
> programming until you get some experience with programming in general 
> and the Ada language in special.

I disagree. There is no reason that a first class in Ada should not be:

with GWindows.Message_Boxes; use GWindows.Message_Boxes;

procedure Hello_World is
begin
	Message_Box ("My_App", "Hello World!");
end Hello_world;

and a Second:

I am planning a series of on-line videos to teach GNAVI / Ada 
programming and intend on doing so.

Unless you have a captured audience being forced to learn Ada, its time 
to start thinking out of the box about how to influence people to want 
to learn Ada!


> 
> I think it would be too much at a time if you want learn all at once: 
> programming, Ada, *and* a GUI system. Maybe you will become frustrated 
> soon.

Certainly not if you are using higher level frameworks like GWindows, 
CLAW or JEWL (and to some degree GtkAda).

I find trying to work with Ada.Text_IO more complex to use or teach 
than GUI programming with any of the above ;-)

> 
> Switch to GUI development if you've got some experience.

Start with it. No reason to live in a DOS / Unix prompt world in 2004.

> If you want concentrate on Windows *and* Ada then look at GWindows.

Look at it any ways :-) http://www.gnavi.org/gwindows


> If you think about writing (Windows-)GUI not only with Ada but maybe 
> with Pascal or C, too, then look at the pure Win32-Api which is used 
> very similar with these other languages.

Look at learning GWindows and understanding the source. If you are 
going to program in C, you will want to use the techniques there. If 
you are going to use Pascal, than forget Delphi and get with GNAVI.

> If you think of (maybe one day in the far future) writing for Windows 
> *and* Linux, then have a look at GTK which allows you to write portable 
> GUIs.

GWindows will be on Linux in time, but GtkAda is a good solution if 
your needs are now.

David Botton
GNAVI - The Open Source Visual RAD
http://www.gnavi.org