Re: Does Visual ADA exist?

[Martin Krischik <martin@krischik.com>]

corlioni1976 wrote:

> "Marius Amado Alves" <amado.alves@netcabo.pt> wrote in message
> news:mailman.42.1105447548.527.comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org...
>> > I am trying to evaluate the transfer of a program written in ADA that
> runs
>> > on an old DOS based computer to a win2000 computer.  I need to make the
>> > program user friendly by giving it a graphical user interface.   At the
>> > moment its just a text interface.  I will probably have to rewrite the
>> > program.  Does Visual ADA exist?  If not, is there software that can be
> used
>> > to convert (cross compile) ADA to C or C++ so I can convert to visual C
> or
>> > visual C++?
>>
>> You should take the chance to do it all in Ada using one the many
>> excelent Ada GUI libraries available. If nothing fancy use JEWL.
>>
>> But... if you really want to use a C GUI library then I would recomend a
>> bilingual construction. You already have the business logic in Ada.
>> Leave it there. Don't "rewrite" it: just make a wrapper around it that
>> exports it to C. Then make you gadgets in C connecting to the business
>> logic thru this wrapper.
>>
> 
> Hi Marius,
> 
> Thanks for your reply.  Do you know of any good ada compilers out there
> that
> I could use.

Well there is GNAT as part of the GCC:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Ada:Installing

The 3.15 version can do Ada and C, the current MinGW implementations will do
Ada, C and C++. Combine it with GPS.

> I am a beginner (last C programming was done 4 years ago and 
> VHDL 5 months ago) when it comes to ada.  I don't really want to learn ada
> and relearn C again.

How do you plan to port an application without learning the language? I hate
to burst your bubble but porting applications is among the most difficult
jobs since you need in deepts knowlege of both platforms in order to know
the differences between the two.

> If I can save time by just learning some ada and 
> transport the code  that way and add a GUI to it I think that will save me
> alot of time in the long run. 

GNAT comes with several GUI toolkits - GTKAda beeing the most known one.

> I dont mind paying for the compiler if what 
> I get is good (the company will pay), but it still needs to be relatively
> cheap (<ￜ500 GB).  Can you recommend any?

Well GNAT without support is free :-) . Support however is very
expensive :-( .

With Regards

Martin

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