GUI Development - GtkAda
GNAT Pro’s solution for developing portable, efficient GUI-driven applications in Ada
GtkAda comprises an API based on the GNU gtk+ toolkit, a comprehensive widget set, and a GUI builder. The product also comes with numerous examples and comprehensive documentation, which help new users quickly learn how to use the API effectively. .
The underlying Gtk+ Toolkit is used in the GNOME/Linux interface and will be used in desktop environments provided by HP, SGI, IBM and Sun. GtkAda’s API is an Ada implementation of this C library, taking advantage of advanced Ada 95 features such as tagged types, generic packages, access-to-subprogram types, and exceptions. It thus provides type safety (particularly for callbacks) and Object-Oriented Programming, in contrast to the C version of the Gtk+ functions.
The GUI builder automates much of the task of developing the GUI code. You can edit the generated code, and the changes will be tracked when you view the resulting program in the GUI builder.
GtkAda technology relies at the lowest level on either Win32 or X11 primitives (depending on the platform) to draw its widgets, guaranteeing very efficient native execution. It has a pluggable look-and-feel, so you can decide whether you would like your application to reflect the native platform’s appearance.
AdaCore uses GtkAda as the graphical toolkit for the implementation of its GUI-based tools, most notably the GPS IDE.
Key Features
- Platform Independent
- Provides native solutions for Unix & Windows, has a pluggable look-and-feel and allows for portable, low-level drawing primitives.
- More than 100 Widgets
- Extensible widget set including notebook, text widget, extended tree, plot, spreadsheet, table, toolbar, tooltips, progress bar.
- Object-oriented API
- Full tagged type hierarchy providing dynamic dispatching, inheritance, extensibility and type safety, through the use of generic callbacks.
- GUI Builder
- GUI Builder generates easy-to-read Ada, C, C++ or XML code and allows for round-trip code generation.
- Integration with Other Tool Kits
- Ability to mix motif-based GUIs with GtkAda-based GUIs and provides support for OpenGL (OpenGL code can be reused as is).
- Seamless Integration into GPS, the GNAT Pro IDE
- Thread Safety
Platforms
For the most up-to-date information on available platforms please contact us at: sales@adacore.com