Re: A new universe of Ada

["G.B." <bauhaus@notmyhomepage.invalid>]

On 26.09.22 08:20, Rick Duley wrote:
> I want to get back to doing some Ada programming and I am suddenly confronted with a whole new new Adaverse.  I suppose that has something to do with my not even looking at an Ada program for some twenty years!  😖  I have Gnat Studio but I can't do anything at all unless I create a Project (whatever that is).  Even then, I can't write and run Hello_World unless I call it Main.  The concept of an IDE where I can step through a program checking changes in variable values as I go seems to have vanished.  In short, I am lost and I can't find any material to help me find my way.

For debugging "normal" programs, the Studio's interface to GDB
(GNU debugger) offers viewing current values of variables,

https://docs.adacore.com/live/wave/gps/html/gps_ug/debugging.html#the-variables-view

(Dmitri's comment might reflect debugging more tricky
programs that run a number of interacting tasks and more.)

> I'd appreciate some help.  Perhaps there is a forum I cannot find for beginner Ada programmers.  Perhaps there is a tutorial or a text I can download.  Everything I can find is written for people with CS Degrees that are not 30 years old and who already know everything about this new world.  What I really need, I think, is _*Ada Programming in Gnat Studio for Dummies*_.  😖


A short description of the purpose of project files,
is found int the User's Guide, also full details:

https://docs.adacore.com/live/wave/gps/html/gps_ug/main_window.html#the-project-view
https://docs.adacore.com/live/wave/gps/html/gps_ug/projects.html#project-handling

"gps" is an abbreviating name, maybe also the name
of a directory in your installation. Look around there
for other User's Guides and Reference Manuals (*_rm.*).
I suspect that GPStudio has a menu or even links
in context menus.

A tutorial ("Let's build a small desk calculator, start here,
do this, then ...") is found at the same WWW node.

The command line programs of GNAT permit translating Ada source
without project files.
Run gnatmake, or even gcc, gnatbind, gnatlink.