ADA testing

ADA applications can be tested in testIDEA, but ADA syntax is not supported. All testIDEA features are designed to work with C syntax. In order to correctly call ADA functions from testIDEA some basic C programming knowledge is required.

ADA procedures

ADA procedures are equivalent to C functions without return value, for example:

ADA procedure:

        procedure testFunc2(iVar : in INTEGER);

is equivalent to C function:

        void testFunc2(int iVar);

To test this function in testIDEA you don't have to know C conversion because it is automatically displayed below the selected function, as shown in the image below (if this is not the case, click the Refresh button):

Please note that the name of the function is not testFunc2() but adaitest_testfunc2() where adaitest is the name of the package where testFunc2() is located. Function and variable names may be changed (upper to lower case) depending on the compiler that you are using, and it is important to use the names as specified by the compiler.

Out parameters

If procedure uses out parameter, than this parameter is returned as a return value specified in field Ret. val. in testIDEA. For example, ADA procedure:

      procedure testFunc3(cVar : in CHARACTER; iVar : out INTEGER);

is equivalent to C function:

      int testFunc3(char cVar, int iVar)

Note that parameter ivar will be passed into function as parameter and returned as return value stored in testIDEA variable rv.

If procedure uses more than one output parameter, than all out parameters are packed into a structure and returned as return value. For example, ADA procedure:

        procedure testFunc5(cVar : in CHARACTER; iVarOut1 : out INTEGER; iVarOut2 : out INTEGER);

has two out parameters.

To correctly evaluate out parameters ivarout1 and ivarout2 you have to evaluate them as members of a structure, which is created by compiler:

In this case compiler generated a type RETURN. To see how this data type is composed, go to winIDEA symbols view:

Other types

The following rules also apply:

ADA record variables are treated as C structures.
ADA functions are treated as C functions.
ADA access variables are treated as pointers.

AdaCore provides more detailed information on this topic.