Gnat for Mac Ada programming

macos text-editor ada gnat
Derpboom picture Derpboom · Jan 28, 2013 · Viewed 12.3k times · Source

I'm learning Ada 95 in my programming class, and I would like to install the gnat compiler on my MacBook. I have no clue as to where to get a good gnat to compile my code, and how to install it.

I currently have gedit as my text editor, because that's what we're using in our lab environment. I'm new to the Mac world so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

Simon Wright picture Simon Wright · Jan 28, 2013

There's an excellent free Ada compiler for Mac OS X available from AdaCore.

You should be OK with the GNAT GPL edition. Follow the Download link - choose Free Software of Academic Development - at the bottom of the page, follow Build your Download Package.

Select your platform as x86_64-darwin, 2012. Click on GNAT 2012, then on gnat-gpl-2012-x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0-bin.tar.gz (this contains all you'll need for the moment).

You'll also need Xcode (free with Mac OS X). Pre-Lion, this was (I think) an optional install on the installation DVD. In Lion or ML, you need to get it from the App Store (in ML it's at Categories > Developer Tools > Xcode). In ML, you also need to install the command line tools: open Xcode, then Xcode > Preferences > Downloads > Components, select Install against the Command Line Tools.

I say to install Xcode first, because the GNAT install needs it (you can tell whether the command line tools are installed by saying which make: if the answer comes back blank, they aren't installed). Anyway, for the GNAT install,

$ cd
$ tar zxvf ~/Downloads/gnat-gpl-2012-x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0-bin.tar.gz
$ cd gnat-gpl-2012-x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0-bin
$ sudo ./doinstall

You don't need the installer after it's finished, so you can delete it.

The defaults install GNAT under /usr/local/gnat, and you'll need to make sure that /usr/local/gnat/bin is first on your path (at any rate, ahead of /usr/bin). I'd edit ~/.bash_profile_common to add

PATH=/usr/local/gnat/bin:$PATH

but I still have trouble knowing which of the ~/.bash* files do what!

Related questions

What is the difference between MacVim and regular Vim?

I'm reasonably new to OS X, but I'm familiar with Vim from using it in various *nix systems. I've seen many people recommend running MacVim over Vim in the terminal. Can anyone tell me what differences there are between MacVim …

Read More
Change the default editor for files opened in the terminal? (e.g. set it to TextEdit/Coda/Textmate)

Is there a way to make files opened for editing in the terminal open in Textedit instead? For example, where a command might open a file for editing (like git commit), instead of opening that file in vim or emacs, …

Read More
How to change text color in TextWrangler on Mac

I cannot figure out how to do this. All I want to do is to select some text and then change the color of that text to red, say. I've lost 20 minutes of my life trying to do this. Typing …

Read More