1. About This ManualΒΆ

This Manual contains reference material for developers using ASIS-for-GNAT — GNAT’s implementation of the Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS). It provides information about ASIS-for-GNAT’s implementation-specific characteristics and current implementation limitations. (The term ‘implementation-specific’ in ASIS means what is called ‘implementation-defined’ in the Ada Reference Manual.)

ASIS has been designed as a portable basis for many kinds of Ada code analysis tools. However, for situations where a developer may need to exploit the characteristics of a particular Ada compiler, ASIS also contains a number of implementation-specific features. These allow interfacing with the underlying Ada implementation, as well as exploiting the implementation permissions for particular queries.

Of course, any ASIS application that uses implementation-specific features may be nonportable. You should follow good programming practice and isolate and clearly document any sections of your program that make use of such features in a nonportable manner.

What This Manual Contains

This manual contains the following chapters:

What You Should Know Before Reading This Manual

This Reference Manual assumes that you are familiar with Ada 95 language as defined by the International Standard ISO/IEC-8652:1995, and with ASIS 95 as defined by the ASIS 95 International Standard ISO/IEC 15291:1999.

This Manual supplements the information presented in the ASIS-for-GNAT User’s Guide and uses the terminology introduced there.

Related Information

For more information, please refer to the following documents:

  • GNAT User’s Guide
  • ASIS-for-GNAT User’s Guide
  • Ada 95 Reference Manual
  • ASIS 95 Standard