Ada Core Libraries - ada

Can I obtain the source code for the core Ada libraries?
I'd like to see the implementation of Text_IO.Get_Imediate and a few other features.

If you are on a linux/unix type system, the ada libs will probably be in somewhere like :
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4/adainclude/
NOTE: The filenames here do not use the standard rules for filename/package association and There are many renames etc, so you may need to dig a lot to find actually what you are looking for.

This is dependant on the compiler you use. Some are open source, others are not.
If you use GNAT: Yes, you can. Either download/install the source package from your package repository, or download it from AdaCore on their libre page: http://libre.adacore.com

If you're using one of the GNAT GPL distributions from AdaCore, and editing with GPS, you can simply right-click on a package or subprogram and select "Go to body of ..." and it will navigate you right to it.

Related

IntelliSense & .NetCore

I've been using .NetCore for some smaller projects and I generally love it, but there are a few issues, of which one has been irritating me quite a bit:
In this example a lot of the configuration stuff uses extension methods to hang extra features off of Json, Command Line, Object Binding etc... In these cases all of which live in separate packages. When you see some code examples which typically include one or more of them you naturally copy them into a project to try them out, giving you compile errors when you try to build them.
Asking VS for guidance (pressing good old Ctrl Dot), doesn't help and so you have to search for the relevant packages you need followed by more searches in Nuget installing each one as required.
So my question is (Drum Roll Please) am I missing something or is there a tool/setting or extension that can give me suggestions based on exported extension methods on Nuget's public packages when you press Ctrl Dot on the error much like suggestions on missing namespaces?
Regards
Lee
If you are targeting netcoreapp2.1 you can use the metapackage which will include all of "supported" packages from Microsoft.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/metapackage-app?view=aspnetcore-2.1

Static link sqlite in Lazarus

I am building an application with Lazarus where I use a sqlite database to store thousands of records. Right now I am linking to the sqlite library dynamically via the sqlite3.dll.
Is it possible to link to it statically? Where can I find the Lazarus compatible lib file to do that?
Note:
I only started using Lazarus and Free Pascal a month ago so something that might look very obvious to one, might not be for me. So bear with me a bit.
Cheers
Actual static linking is difficult since the TSQLite3Connection component is inherently designed to actively load the SQLite3 DLL. In other words, it's not linking against the library when you compile the program, the component is coded to dynamically load the DLL at run time.
If you are looking to have a totally self contained program, then you can accomplish this two different ways.
Create a new TSQLite3Connection component that links statically against sqlite3 instead of loading the DLL dynamically.
Include the sqlite3.dll as a resource in your program and have your program automatically deploy it before it runs.
Solution #1 is not trivial and not for the faint of heart. I've done it, and I intended to include a link to the component, but the result isn't stable. The problem is that you have to compile a static version of sqlite3, which isn't a real problem, but you have to do it with something like gcc under MinGW and that introduces issues. Compiling with gcc under MinGW means you have to then link in libgcc.a, and because FreePascal's internal linker doesn't know how to interpret stdcall symbols properly, you also have to link against MinGW's libkernel32.a, and libmsvcrt.a. The result just isn't stable. Crashes galore.
Solution #2 should be fairly easy, but the Lazarus maintainers make it a little hard. The part where you store the dll inside the executable as a resource is easy enough to do. And so is writing it out as a temp file. The problem is that you can't tell the TSQLite3Connection component where to find it after. So it looks in the executable's folder, or in system folders. Neither of which can necessarily be written to by the executable. The only place you can guarantee that your program will be able to write to is a temp folder. So what I did is created a new version of TSQLite3Connection component call TSQLite3DynConnection, meaning you can dynamically specify where the DLL is. I made a published property called ClientLibrary where you can specify the location of the dll (it doesn't have to end in .dll, so you can use system temp filename generation routines). You can get this component at: http://icculus.org/~kfitzner/misc/sqlite3dyndll.zip. It will compile against Lazarus 1.6.2 FP 3.0.0, or FP 1.0.6 / FP 2.6.0, which are the two versions I use.
I'll update this answer if I can get the statically linked version stable.
2 Dec 2016 update: I managed to get a static version stable.

Can the GitHub Atom editor show properties and functions of classes?

Recently I moved from NetBeans to GitHub Atom editor. How can I access properties and functions of classes in the editor?
I use a mix with the symbol gen and symbols view packages. First one very good about generating ctag file for your project and second one for inspect code and jump to the definitions of tags. Also, it supports Show all symbols in current file future. It have to show for you the members and properties of your classes.
In short: after installation open a work directory with your project and try alt + cmd + g, wait several seconds, ctags file generating now for you and after that cmd + r and just start typing any part of a method or property in the input.
In addition to all the previous answers, I would recommend you to check Atom's package goto-definition, with its optional "performance mode" (which requires you to install ripgrep).
goto-definition will allow you to find and access properties and
functions/classes definitions even if they are not written in the same file. In combination with ripgrep, goto-definition is extremely fast, and you will not have to wait for file indexing within your project.
If you are referring to the members of a Java class (which I assume, since you've used NetBeans before), then this is currently not supported in Atom.
Atom is a (fairly simple) editor that allows you to edit text files, while full-blown IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) like Eclipse, NetBeans or IntelliJ IDEA have full language support including running, debugging and browsing Java class information. It might be better to stick with one of the IDEs I mentioned if you are looking for this kind of functionality.
Having said that, there's the https://atom.io/packages/atom-ctags package, which supposedly can show some meta information about classes you're working on. It's primarily for C++, although it might work for Java as well (I haven't tried).

GitHub fails to determine the repository language

I use GitHub for a C++ / Qt project. GitHub automatically determines the languages of the project from the file extentions. Problem: Qt has a file name ProjectName.pro, which is interpreted to be Prolog by GitHub.
How can I indicate it is NOT Prolog, but C++ ?
It is actually a known issue: https://github.com/github/linguist/issues/394
It's been submitted 6 month ago but GitHub still doesn't bother fixing it... Do you think of any workaround ?
As said in the original issue (https://github.com/github/linguist/issues/394):
Linguist now supports custom overrides for language definitions and
custom vendor paths
So in order to finally have Qt project files properly recognized as C++ in language statistics, you can add this line in your .gitattributes file.
*.pro linguist-language=C++
See https://github.com/github/linguist#overrides for more details.

Documentation for writing GNOME Shell extensions

I've been asked to customise the layout of the GNOME 3 desktop. Apparently the way to do that is by writing an "extension".
I've managed to do some of the things I wanted to do, but I feel utterly starved of information. I cannot find any useful documentation anywhere. I've wasted entire days of my life frantically googling every imaginable search term in a desperate attempt to find useful information.
The GNOME website has hundreds of extensions for download. These are not trivial 3-liners; they're sophisticated pieces of code. It defies belief that anybody could write these without documentation explaining how to do it.
Please, can somebody tell me where the actual documentation is? So far, the best I've managed to do is take apart existing extensions trying to track down the magic command that does the specific bit I'm interested in. (Not an easy task!)
Command names, object paths, example programs, anything would be helpful!
I have recently dug into it myself. The documentation is usually sparse or outdated. Here are some sources which helped me to get started (and through development):
Basic Stuff
Step-by-step tutorial (Gnome 3.4)
Unofficial documentation for the JavaScript bindings of many libraries
The sources of the gnome-shell's JavaScript bindings
Explanation of the St (Shell Toolkit) Ui-Toolkit components.
Some unofficial guidelines to get your extension on extensions.gnome.org
Since the documentation is nearly unavailable (or up to date), you'll need to do a lot of source-reading. I linked the gnome-shell sources above (the JavaScript part) which is a good start when diving into parts that are not covered by the In-official documentation (which is the most complete thing you'll find).
What's also particular helpful is checking extensions.gnome.org for extensions which do similar things to what you want to create, and look at their sources (most of them are open-source on GitHub or Bitbucket. You can also install them and find the sources under ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/).
When searching for something to use or more documentation on a particular function, you can also consult manuals for bindings in different languages (thought the parameters and return-values might not match).
Last but not least, here is some debugging advice:
LookingGlass is not particularly helpful. It only shows one line of an exception (the description) and only if they occur at startup time (when your extension is first started).
For full StackTraces and runtime-exceptions, consult the ~/.xsession-errors-file. It might be very long and bloated. I use this handy script to read it:
# Grabs the last session-errors from the current X11 session.
# This includes full Stack-Trace of gnome-shell-extension errors.
# See https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Extensions/StepByStepTutorial#lookingGlass
tail -n100 ~/.cache/gdm/session.log | less
Note that since Gnome 3.6, if you are using gdm as display manager, the current session log is the file ~/.cache/gdm/session.log.
On some newer distros using systemd, you can get the error logs with:
journalctl -f /usr/bin/gnome-session
For debugging the prefs-part of your extension, you can launch the preferences by using the gnome-shell-extension-prefs-tool from a terminal, to see any exception-output on the console (you can also call the tool like gnome-shell-extension-prefs [uuid], to directly show your extensions preferences).
Since there is currently no real way of debugging with breakpoints (there is, but it's tricky), you can log on the console for quick checking, use the print()-function. You will see the output as mentioned above (either in the sessions-error file or on the terminal when starting gnome-shell-extension-prefs-tool).
Although it might be a little hard to get into it, the extension framework is quite powerful. Have fun!
I wrote a Blog-Post with somewhat greater detail, which can be found here: Making Gnome-Shell Extensions
An extensive list of references can be found on the Gnome Developer - API Reference page.
I used the following for my extension, but your use may vary:
GTK+ 3
GTK+ is the primary library used to construct user interfaces in GNOME applications. It provides user interface controls and signal callbacks to control user interfaces.
GDK 3
GDK is an intermediate layer which isolates GTK+ from the details of the windowing system.
Clutter
Clutter is a GObject based library for creating fast, visually rich, graphical user interfaces.
GObject Introspection
GObject Introspection is striving to provide a middleware layer between (GObject based) C libraries and language bindings.
Shell
Shell Reference Manual
St
St - Shell Toolkit - is the GNOME Shell's custom Clutter-based toolkit that defines useful actors. Some of these actors, such as StBoxLayout and StBin implement various layout options.
Icon Theme Specification
This freedesktop.org specification describes a common way to store icon themes.
NOTE: These last two are very helpful in finding visual element parameters!
PyGTK
PyGTK is GTK+ for Python. This reference contains a chapter for each Python PyGTK module (that corresponds to the underlying GTK+ library) containing the class descriptions.
PyGObject
PyGObject is a Python extension module that gives clean and consistent access to the entire GNOME software platform through the use of GObject Introspection. Specifically speaking, it is Python Bindings for GLib, GObject, GIO and GTK+.
This reference contains a chapter for each PyGObject module containing the class descriptions.
The documentation is on:
https://gjs.guide/extensions/
For the documentation of libraries:
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/
More details on https://gjs.guide/extensions/overview/architecture.html
The other stuff you might want to check are
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/blob/main/js/ui/popupMenu.js
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/blob/main/js/ui/dialog.js
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/blob/main/js/ui/modalDialog.js
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/blob/main/js/ui/panelMenu.js
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/tree/main/js
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter
You can browse under js/ for more code to be reused.
You might also want to check https://gi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
Question:
I could not find anything under https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/ except some CSS and Javascript documentation ?!?!
Answer:
You have to first enable the docs to use them. Here, you will be mainly looking for:
clutter
meta
shell
st
Create a file like:
echo '{"docs":"clutter9~9_api/clutterx118~8_api/gobject20~2.66p/meta9~9_api/shell01~0.1_api/st10~1.0_api","hideIntro":"1"}' > devdocs.json
Import this file to https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/settings
Now you will be able to visit:
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/shell01~0.1_api-global/
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/shell01~0.1_api/
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/meta9~9_api/
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/st10~1.0_api/
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/clutter9~9_api/
https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/clutter9~9_api-actor/
Warning: The version on the devdocs.json file is hardcoded. It will be outdated in no time, so you might want to check the version. The point is - you can not access docs until you enable them.
P.S. I know, this is a mess. This is how they did it.

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