The AZip Archive Manager: a full-Ada Open-Source Portable Application

The AZip Archive Manager: a full-Ada Open-Source Portable Application

FOSDEM 2019

If you open the AZip application with a can opener, it will look like an Ada programmer's paradise: you'll find Ada on all levels:

1. the AZip user interface (UI framework specific);
2. the AZip abstract application layer (platform-independent);
3. the archive and data compression library (Zip-Ada);
4. the user interface framework (GWindows);
5. the run-time library (GNAT's).

We will quantify this.

Portability is matched on three different definitions of the word:

1. platform-independence for the abstracted part and the Zip-Ada library - no porting effort at all there;
2. you can easily port the user interface layer since most of the job is done in the abstracted part;
3. no installation needed: the version built on GWindows is contained in a single executable file and can be run from a USB stick; it can be even run in a stealth mode, without writing settings to the registry of the host system.

Speakers: Gautier de Montmollin