ada-light-mode is a very light alternative to
ada-mode. It depends only on the compat
library for compatibility with older Emacs versions, and it aims to be easy to
set up, fast, and reliable.
- Highlight reserved words of the language
- Identify comments and strings, so that you can use the usual commands for (un)commenting, as well as Emacs features for spell-checking, URL detection, etc.
- Imenu support for subprograms, packages, and types
You can combine ada-light-mode with the Ada language
server for more advanced
features (see below).
The Ada language server can
enhance ada-light-mode with LSP features like documentation lookup,
jump-to-definition, refactoring, and on-the-fly error checking. This section
documents how to set it up with eglot;
the alternative lsp-mode should work
too but will require additional work.
First, install eglot (e.g., via M-x package-install RET eglot RET) and make
sure that the ada_language_server binary is on your PATH. Then, create a
.dir-locals.el file in your project to tell the language server where to find
the Ada project definition:
;;; Directory Local Variables
;;; For more information see (info "(emacs) Directory Variables")
((ada-light-mode . ((eglot-workspace-configuration . (:ada
(:projectFile "/path/to/project.gpr"))))))Finally, open a source file and run M-x eglot to start the language server.
When eglot is active, indentation uses the language server's formatting
capabilities to indent code (i.e.,
textDocument.rangeFormatting).
It actually does a bit more than that, possibly breaking the to-be-indented
line up into multiple lines if that's how the language server suggests to
format it. Note that the Ada language server sometimes modifies code beyond the
current line in response to such a request. This can be especially confusing
when you simply inserted a newline - automatic indentation of the just-finished
line triggers the undesired behavior. In such cases, you can insert the newline
with C-j to circumvent automatic indentation.
The Ada language server exposes a custom command als-other-file that lets you
jump between specification and body files; use it with M-x ada-light-other-file (after starting eglot) or bind the command to a key for
easy access.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.