Hi list,
Since the last exchange in this thread, I have made the following:
* a README document (including a cookbook as suggested by Werner)
which assumes little knowledge of Ada or PLplot.
* An Ada port of Example 1.
* bash files for *nix including OS X and related files to make a
- Hello World in Ada
- A super-simple plotting example
- Example 1, x01.
I have also updated the web site with more HTML-ized examples and
have included the Ada rendering of Example 1 in the graphical example
slide show. I'll convert more of the PLplot examples to Ada as time
permits.
The code (Ada and bash) and README can be downloaded as a zip file.
The stuff is here:
http://homepage.mac.com/oscarruitt/plplotinada/plplot_ada.html
I notice that when Example 1 runs on my Mac, whether in C or Ada, the
symbols in the upper two plots are drawn as squares rather than
circles. This indicates to me that the appropriate symbols are
missing because the Mac sometimes draws a square-like character to
indicate a missing character. I haven't investigated this so I'll be
interested to hear if anyone knows what might be going on.
Jerry
On Dec 20, 2006, at 8:19 PM, Jerry wrote:
> 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
>>
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