I am new to Ada and am having some issues. I have created a generic Date package:
Date.ads:
GENERIC
PACKAGE Date IS
TYPE MonthName IS (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August,
September, October, November, December);
TYPE DateRec IS RECORD
Month: MonthName;
Day: Integer RANGE 1..31;
Year: Integer;
END RECORD;
PROCEDURE PrintDate(Adate: IN DateRec);
END Date;
Date.adb:
WITH Ada.Text_IO;
USE Ada.Text_IO;
PACKAGE BODY Date IS
PACKAGE MonthNameIO IS NEW Ada.Text_IO.Enumeration_IO(MonthName);
USE MonthNameIO;
PACKAGE IntegerIO IS NEW Ada.Text_IO.Enumeration_IO(Integer);
USE IntegerIO;
PROCEDURE PrintDate(Adate: IN DateRec) IS
BEGIN
Put(Adate.Month);
Put(Adate.Day,3);
Put(",");
Put(Adate.Year, 5);
New_Line;
END PrintDate;
END Date;
I want to be able to use "DateRec" in a program, but encounter errors when I attempt to compile. The calling code:
WITH Date;
...
PACKAGE Date_Stack IS NEW Gstack(StackSize, DateRec);
I get the following errors when I compile:
genstack.adb:176:57: "DateRec" is not visible (more references follow)
genstack.adb:176:57: non-visible declaration at date.ads:7
What am I missing?
Ok, now the problem I am having is when I attempt to use an object:
TempDate: Date.DateRec;
...
Get(TempDate.Month);
The compile now gives me:
genstack.adb:201:25: missing argument for parameter "Item" in call to "Get" declared at a-tienio.ads:65, instance at line 183
Your Date package has no generic parameters, so there's probably no point in making it generic.
If you drop the GENERIC keyword, it will likely work (I haven't actually tried it myself).
If you really do want it to be generic, then you'll need to instantiate it before you can use it. Date is not a package; it's a generic package.
generic
package Date is
...
end Date;
package MyDate is new Date;
Now MyDate is a (non-generic) package, and you can refer to MyDate.DateRec.
By making it generic with no generic parameters, you can create multiple instantiations, each of which is a distinct package, so that MyDate.DateRec and YourDate.DateRec are distinct types. It's not clear that that's worthwhile.
Normally a generic package has one or more parameters, so that different instances operate on different types. You even have examples of that in your code: Ada.Text_IO.Enumeration_IO is generic, and your MonthNameIO is a specific instance of that generic package.
Related
I use an object based on a base package roughly defined as:
package Base is
type T_Base is abstract tagged null record;
-- This performs a deep copy. Shallow copies may lead to STORAGE_ERROR.
-- This shall be implemented by every derived type.
function Copy (From : in T_Base) return T_Base'Class is abstract;
end package Base;
This package is derived by several packages which are further derived
package Foo is
type T_Foo is new T_Base with record
A_Data : Natural; -- Of course, in the real code, these are types by far more complex.
end record;
procedure do_something (Foo_Object : in T_Foo);
-- This implements the deep copy
function Copy (From : in T_Foo) return T_Base'Class is abstract;
end package Foo;
On calling the procedure do_something, I do get a storage_error:
procedure handle_received_foo (Foo_In: in Foo.T_Foo) is
begin
Foo.do_something (Foo_Object => Foo_In); -- The storage error does happen here.
end main;
When running the code with gdb, I get a segfault on entering the function and I get:
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 39 (LWP 39)]
0x033c9828 in foo.do_something (foo_object=...) at ./foo.adb:67
67 procedure do_something (Foo_Object : in T_Foo);
(gdb) p foo_object
$1 (null)
So I guess I get a storage_error when doing the shallow copy of the argument Foo_Object.
I am aware that this is no MWE and that there might be a mistake in one of the types present used in the derived types.
I can't find any good option:
Making T_Foo a Controlled type to call Copy in Adjust seems not to be possible without greatly changing its definition as I can't derive T_Foo both from T_Base and Ada.Finalization.Controlled since none of them is an interface types
Defining T_Base as
type T_Base is abstract new Ada.Finalization.Controlled with null record;
and override Adjust here seems to induce a hell lot too much modifications on the existing code base as gnat yields in multiple places
type of aggregate has private ancestor "Controlled" must use extension aggregate.
So I'm low on solutions to either investigate the problem further or to solve it with a hammer.
The problem was not in the Copy function. The comments I saw in the code base were misleading.
The fact that introducing new variables changed the location of the exception made me consider some stack overflow problems.
Indeed the Storage_Size allocated for the task was not sufficient. Increasing the pragma Storage_Size(<value>) solved the problem.
Since the code base is compiled with -fstack-check, this led to the aforementioned STORAGE_ERROR.
More infos on Adacore's documentation.
This could probably have been seen with Gem #95: Dynamic Stack Analysis in GNAT but I am not currently able to see any result with the binding option suggested therein.
You can assign to a variable by having a function return a value to it:
My_Int : Integer := My_Math_Func [(optional params)];
Or you can do it like this with a procedure (assuming My_Int has already been declared):
My_Math_Proc ([optional params;] [in] out My_Int);
Obviously a procedure can't initialize a variable like the function does in the first example, but I'm hoping for some concrete, practical rules on when and why to pick one over the other.
Two to get you started...
When more than one result is to be returned, a procedure with several OUT parameters is often a good choice.
When the size of the object is unknown prior to the subprogram call, an OUT parameter cannot be used because it would have to be declared precisely the right size, but a function return can set the size by initialising the variable in the caller. This is commonly used with a variable declared in a Declare block, which can hold a different sized string each time it is invoked.
This example shows the variable "text" initialised by calling a Read_File function, to hold the contents of a different file on each iteration of the loop. Safe, no "malloc" or "free" or pointers necessary. (Filename is an array of filenames in this example)
for i in 1 .. last_file loop
declare
text : String := Read_File(Filename(i));
-- the size of "text" is determined by the file contents
begin
-- process the text here.
for j in text'range loop
if text(j) = '*' then
...
end loop;
end
end loop;
Edit : And I suppose I'd better mention the underlying mathematical principle, since Ada is based more closely on mathematical logic than many other languages.
Functions and procedures are both subprograms, but for different purposes:
a function is an abstraction over an expression : like a mathematical operator (and an operator in Ada is just a function). Ideally, it provides a result from a number of operands and nothing else, leaving them unchanged and having no state and no side effects. This ideal is called a "pure function" (and applying "pragma pure" asks the compiler to check its purity) - similar restrictions apply in functional programming (FP) languages. Pure functions allow a whole bunch of optimisation (because reordering them doesn't change results). In practice Ada is not that strict, allowing impure functions too.
a procedure is an abstraction over a statement. It generally has some physical effect (such as changing state) since it doesn't deliver a result.
So the logical separation between expressions and statements is carried over into subprograms (abstractions) as the separation between functions and procedures.
And this is probably the best way to decide which to use.
Brian Drummond already answered your question directly, but I wanted to add some additional info: If your type has some sort of initializing procedure, in Ada2005/Ada2012 you can convert it to an initializing function using extended return syntax. It will even work for limited types.
Say you have a package with a type like this:
package Example is
type My_Type is limited private;
procedure Initialize(Self : in out My_Type; Value : Integer);
procedure Print(Self : My_Type);
private
type My_Type is limited record
Value : Integer := 0;
end record;
end Example;
package body Example is
procedure Initialize(Self : in out My_Type; Value : Integer) is
begin
Self.Value := Value;
end Initialize;
procedure Print(Self : My_Type) is
begin
Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line(Self.Value'Image);
end Print;
end Example;
You can then make your own initializing function out of that procedure doing something like this:
function Make_My_Type (Value : Integer) return Example.My_Type is
begin
return Result : Example.My_Type do
Example.Initialize(Result,Value);
end return;
end Make_My_Type;
and you can initialize variables easily using the procedure hidden in your function underneath:
procedure Test
Thing : Example.My_Type := Make_My_Type(21);
begin
Example.Print(Thing);
end Test;
This is different than just making a variable and returning it. You are not able to do that with a limited type, but with extended return syntax, you can do it for any type.
Here is some additional info for extended return statements as well.
I'm trying to do some basic translations of old C++ code from many moons ago to learn Ada, and I have been absolutely stumped on how to sort a vector using the built-in Generic_Sorting. I haven't been able to find any concrete examples of it in action, the closest being a now-defunct Danish wiki article which looks like it would have had a full example but the archive didn't snatch it up: https://web.archive.org/web/20100222010428/http://wiki.ada-dk.org/index.php/Ada.Containers.Vectors#Vectors.Generic_Sorting
Here is the code as I thought it should work from the above link:
with Ada.Integer_Text_IO; use Ada.Integer_Text_IO;
with Ada.Strings.Unbounded; use Ada.Strings.Unbounded;
with Ada.Containers.Vectors; use Ada.Containers;
procedure Vectortest is
package IntegerVector is new Vectors
(Index_Type => Natural,
Element_Type => Integer);
package IVSorter is new Generic_Sorting;
IntVec : IntegerVector.Vector;
Cursor : IntegerVector.Cursor;
begin
IntVec.Append(3);
IntVec.Append(43);
IntVec.Append(34);
IntVec.Append(8);
IVSorter.Sort(Container => IntVec);
Cursor := IntegerVector.First(Input);
while IntegerVector.Has_Element(Cursor) loop
Put(IntegerVector.Element(Cursor));
IntegerVector.Next(Cursor);
end loop;
end Vectortest;
I've tried so many different combinations of use and with but all I can get are various error codes. The above code gives Generic_Sorting is not visible, but when I try to explicitly state with Ada.Containers.Vectors.Generic_Sorting I get the error "Ada.Containers.Vectors.Generic_Sorting" is not a predefined library unit. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong here, I'm sure it's a fundamental misunderstanding of the way Ada brings in packages, and I hope that nailing this down will help me understand it a bit better.
Generic_Sorting is an inner package to Ada.Containers.Vectors and cannot be explicitly withed (as you have discovered). And since Ada.Containers.Vectors is itself a generic package, Generic_Sorting is an inner package to the instantiation of Ada.Containers.Vectors. So you can reach it by prefixing with the name of the instance:
package IVSorter is new IntegerVector.Generic_Sorting;
I have a package called Linked_List(.ads) Here is the code in it:
Generic
type T is private;
package Linked_List is
type List is tagged record
Data : T;
end record;
end Linked_List;
and here is the code in the package which contains the main function (main.adb)
with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
with Linked_List;
procedure Main is
type ListOfIntegers is new Linked_List(T => Integer);
begin
null;
end Main;
I'm getting this error:
4:30 subtype mark required in this context
found "Linked_List" declared at linked_list.ads:3
found "Linked_List" declared at linked_list.ads:3
4:41 incorrect constrain for this kind of type
Any help is appreciated.
new Linked_List(T => Integer) defines a new package, not a new type. The error messages you’re getting are because the compiler thinks you’re declaring a type, so seeing the name of a package at column 30 confused it; it wanted to see the name of a (sub)type.
Line 4 should read
package ListOfIntegers is new Linked_List(T => Integer);
after which there is a type ListOfIntegers.List, so you can write
My_List : ListOfIntegers.List;
You may find having to say ListOfIntegers. all the time annoying; you can say
use ListOfIntegers;
after which you can just write
My_List : List;
but it’s usually thought best not to overdo this (if you have dozens of “withed” packages, “using” them all makes it difficult to know which one you’re referring to).
By the way, normal Ada usage is to use underscores to separate words in identifiers: List_Of_Names.
I want to print integers in Ada 83. At present I am just using 'with Text_IO' and 'use Text_IO'. I don't want to print using the Integer'Image option. I want to use Integer_Text_IO in ada83. Please help me out with the syntax.
I am using below code:
with Text_IO;
use Text_IO;
i: INTEGER :=1;
package Int_IO is new Integer_IO(INTEGER);
use Int_IO; put(i);
I am getting 'expect signed integer type in instantiation of "Num" ' error.
The example below, which compiles, should help.
But please, when posting a question on StackOverflow (or anywhere on the Net, really) show us the code you’ve actually tried. The sample you’ve provided doesn’t come close to compiling (it fails at line 3 with compilation unit expected), and that makes it very hard for us to work out how to help you.
You’ll get expect signed integer type in instantiation of “Num” if you try to instantiate Text_IO with the wrong sort of type (for example, Float).
with Text_IO;
procedure Integer_IO_Demo is
package Int_IO is new Text_IO.Integer_IO (Integer);
begin
for J in 5 .. 10 loop
Int_IO.Put (J);
Text_IO.New_Line;
end loop;
end Integer_IO_Demo;