Re: A new universe of Ada

["Jeffrey R.Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.acm.org.not>]

On 2022-09-26 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.

Welcome back.

Unless your project uses multiple languages, or has a complicated build process, 
project files and gprbuild are unnecessary complications. You can use GNAT and 
GNAT Studio without them.

You can start GNAT Studio with a "default project". This lets you use it as an LSE.

You can compile and run your programs from the command line:

$ gnatmake -O2 -fstack-check hello_world.adb
$ ./hello_world

(This presumes some version of Unix. On Windows the second line would omit "./")

I have never found a debugger worth learning for well designed Ada programs, but 
you generally get an Ada-aware version of gdb along with GNAT. You have to 
specify extra switches to make your executable gdb friendly. You can probably 
debug a program with

$ gdb hello_World

To build, run, and debug a program from within GNAT Studio requires having a 
project file and understanding how GNAT Studio needs to be configured.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Friends don't let friends program in C++"
Zalman Stern
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