Hi Alan, Thanks for the info. I'll work up a few examples and some command- line build stuff. My Ada compiler is gcc's GNAT so the commands will be specific to that. I'll post some more stuff to my web site when it's ready.
My only question is, where is the f95 code? I don't see it on the PLplot Examples site or in the bindings in the distribution. I'm still using 5.5.3. Is f95 included with later versions? Am I making a big mistake in not using later versions? Jerry On Dec 20, 2006, at 7:35 PM, Alan W. Irwin wrote: >>> Jerry wrote (earlier): >>>> I'd like to know if there is any interest in including these >>>> bindings with the PLplot distribution. > > Hi Jerry: > > Yes, there is some interest assuming you are willing to donate your > code > under our preferred license which is the LGPL. We would need e- > mail stating > that from you before we could accept your donation. Furthermore, it's > important for you to give us enough detailed information to build the > interface and examples for ourselves (see below) since I believe > our current > Ada expertise is pretty low. > > On 2006-12-20 17:46-0700 Jerry wrote: >> >> On Dec 20, 2006, at 4:50 AM, Werner Smekal wrote: > >>> Could you provide a cookbook what is needed to make the bindings >>> work (for persons who never used ada)? >> >> I can provide a help file or readme although compiling sources and >> linking libraries is just the usual stuff. Command line usage >> requires compiling your main Ada program, assuming the sources are in >> your search paths. Compiling Ada is quite easy because every Ada >> package must specify everything it needs, thus simplifying the build >> process. Compiling a multi-file program is done by simply directing >> the compiler to compile the main program. The Ada compiler that is >> included with gcc is especially easy to invoke, as I understand (not >> having used any others). >> >> After compiling, you tell the linker where the PLplot library is and >> you're done. > > Werner had an excellent question here. We could probably figure out > how to > build the Ada interface from the general description you give above > and > reading some of the Ada documentation, but to make it easy for all our > developers who have never used Ada (such as me) could you please > provide a > step by step cookbook of the exact commands (command-line much > preferred > over GUI commands) we should use to build the interface for those with > access to your platform (OS X)? Once we had those, it should be > straightforward to integrate those instructions into our CMake > build system > so that the interface could be easily built on all platforms. > >>> >>> And would it also possible for you to port the examples which you >>> can find in the examples directory to ada examples (using the thin >>> bindings)? >> >> I would like to port the examples but I'm a one-person operation so >> this would take extra time, especially since I still struggle to >> decipher C. (The FORTRAN examples are easier for me to read so maybe >> I would use them as a starting point.) I would use the thick >> bindings, however, because I'm afraid that many Ada programmers would >> look at the examples written using the thin bindings and keep looking >> elsewhere for a plotter. For example, the argument lists for the >> thick binding are frequently shorter because it is not necessary to >> pass array dimensions. >> >> Does the PLplot distribution policy absolutely require that the >> examples be included with the binding? > > Again, Werner brought up an important point. Showing that the > standard set > of examples in the language of choice produces the same postscript > results > as the C examples is an excellent test of that language interface. > Thus, an > interface is not really considered to be first class until all the > standard > examples are implemented with results compared with the C results > for the > standard examples. > > That said, if your initial donation included just a few of the > standard > examples, that would encourage us to do the integration work with > our CMake > build system with the understanding that you would be willing to > fill in > more standard examples as time permitted. Furthermore, the exposure > your > interface got with PLplot might inspire others to help you out with > that > task even if they didn't know Ada to start since it should be > straightforward to infer what the source code should be for > additional Ada > examples once we see the required language syntax in the examples > that you > supply. > > I suggest you use the f95 examples as the template for your initial > subset > of the standard examples in ada. That interface (like most of our > high-level > interfaces) has all redundant dimension information dropped so that > sounds > most compatible with your "thick" ada interface to PLplot. > > Alan > __________________________ > Alan W. Irwin > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. 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