13. Projects

13.1. Project Wizard

Go to the menu File->New Project…: this opens up the GPS project creation wizard.

The first page of the wizard allows you to select a pre-defined project template in the left-hand pane. These project templates are organized according to the technology they use (e.g: AWS) or the platform that is targeted (e.g: STM32F4 compatible). The description of the currently selected project is displayed on the right-hand side pane.

Select a project template and click on Next: a page asking you the name and the location of your project will appear. This page may also list project template-specific options.

Once completed, click on Apply to actually create the project. Note that you can still can customize your newly created project after is creation using the Project properties editor.

13.2. Project properties

In the project view, on the project sdc, use the contextual menu Project->Properties. All the properties set in the project wizard can be found here as well. You can switch between pages by clicking on the tabs located along the left side of the window.

Once you’re done exploring the property pages, click on the Cancel button to close the properties window.

13.3. Variable editor

Select the window titled “Scenario”. If not available, you can open it using the menu View->Scenario. This window contains a Build label.

This is a configuration variable. With GPS and the GNAT project facility, you can define as many configuration variables as you want, and modify any project settings (e.g. switches, sources, …) based on the values of configuration variables. These variables can also take any number of different values.

The Build variable demonstrates a typical Debug/Production configuration where we’ve set different switches for the two modes.

Right click on the Build label and select Edit properties of Build…: this opens the variable editor, where values can be added or renamed. Close the variable editor by clicking on the Cancel button.

Now, let’s take a look at the switches set in the project.

13.4. Switch editor

Select the menu item View->File Switches: a global switch editor is displayed in the working area, showing the switches associated with each file in the sdc project.

The editor lists the switches associated with each file in the project. Gray entries indicate default (global) switches. Notice that screen_output.adb has specific switches, which are highlighted using a different font.

Switch between Debug and Production mode in the Build combo box: the switches are updated automatically.

Back to our project, let’s now examine the dependencies between sources.

13.5. Source dependencies

Select sdc.adb in the Project View and then the contextual menu item Show dependencies for sdc.adb: this will open a new graph showing the dependencies between sources of the project.

Click on the right arrow of tokens.ads to display the files that tokens.ads depends on. Similarly, click on the right arrow of stack.ads.

13.6. Project dependencies

Back in the project view, on the Sdc project, select the contextual menu Project->Dependencies, then on the Add From File, then open the tutorial directory and click on the projects subdirectory. Select the file prj1.gpr, click on OK. Click on Apply to validate the change.

You can see the new dependency added in the project view, as a list (or tree, if ‘Show flat view’ is enabled in local configuration menu) of projects. In particular, project dependencies are duplicated when tree view is used: if you open the prj1 icon by clicking on the triangle, and then similarly open the prj2 icon, you will notice that the project prj4 is displayed twice: once as a dependency of prj2, and once as a dependency of prj1.

GPS can also display the graph of dependencies between projects: on Sdc project, use the contextual menu Show projects imported by Sdc: this will open a project hierarchy browser.

On the Sdc project, select the contextual menu Show projects imported by Sdc recursively.

In the browser, you can move the project items, and select them to highlight the dependencies.