Re: Teaching C/C++ from Ada perspective?

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

> On 2018-07-05 07:49, Maciej Sobczak wrote:
> It's not about storage, it's about modularity of the tool set. Compiling 
> is not the only thing I want to do to with the source code. I need 
> reliable configuration management, too, and most often than not, it is 
> imposed on me independently on the language. Like, say, I'm told to use 
> Git. It does not matter whether I like Git or not, but what does matter to
>me is whether I can use it seamlessly. I need to run an independent static
>analysis tool, too, and if my source lives in some nebulous "library" and 
>needs to be regenerated only ...

You're seriously confused as to how a "library" works in Ada. It has 
*nothing* to do with source code.

Take Janus/Ada, for example. The source code lives wherever the programmer 
wants it, it's not in the library (unless the programmer is sloppy and uses 
the same direectory for both). It is given to the compiler, and it converts 
it to code and an Ada symboltable. The compiler *never* uses the source 
again; it only cares about one source file at a time and *never* uses it 
after the initial parsing. The information saved in the library is the 
semantic information needed to compile other units; it's not possible to 
regenerate any form of source from it (all of these steps are one way only). 
You keep the original source for use of other tools and possibly to modify 
and recompile again.

Janus/Ada does keep the original source name, solely for the use of other 
tools (build management, debugging, etc.) None of those tools have anything 
to do with implementing the Ada language as described in the Standard --  
they're about adding some ease-of-use to the system.

You could of course put the source into such a library system (Rational did 
so, I think). Since Rational's system included configuration management and 
modeling, there wasn't a whole lot of reason to leave it. But of course that 
was possible if necessary. (I think that's likely for any such system - 
configuration management needs to be integrated with the IDE, and static 
analysis should [IMHO] be an integral part of any Ada compiler. So leaving 
it would be rare - maybe for modeling if your management is dumb enough to 
think there is anything to be gained there).

                                            Randy.