4. Building applications

Select the icon Build Main: sdc.adb on the toolbar (fourth icon from the right): this will launch a complete build of the sdc application. Note also that you can use a key binding directly instead of this tool bar button (F4), or use the corresponding menu item Build->Project->Sdc->sdc.adb. If you use the menu item, an extra intermediate dialog is displayed showing the actual command line that will be used by GPS. Pressing Execute will launch the build as well.

The build has generated a number of errors in a new window: the Locations tree, displayed in the bottom area. The errors are also highlighted in the corresponding source editor.

GPS has automatically jumped to the first error message (sdc.adb, 28:6 : (style) bad indentation), at the line (28) and column (6) of the error.

Fix the error by hand by inserting a space.

Now you can fix the next error by moving the cursor to the line 30 (press the down arrow twice), and by using Tab: this key shortcut asks the source editor to automatically re-indent the current line.

Note that you can change this shortcut from the key shortcuts section of the Preferences dialog (menu Edit->Preferences, General/Key shortcuts section, Format Selection item).

You can then fix all the remaining errors by selecting the whole block (from line 28 to line 40) and pressing Tab. To select a block, you can either click on the left mouse button and select the area while holding the button, or using the keyboard by pressing the Shift key and moving the cursor using the Up or Down keys.

Press the F4 key to build again. GPS will automatically save the modified files, and start a build. This behavior (automatic saving of files before building) can be configured in the preferences dialog.

If you look to the right of the toolbar in the GPS window, next to the omni-search entry, you will notice that a progress bar has appeared, displaying the current number of files compiled, and the number of remaining files. This progress bar disappears when the build is finished.

This should now report a successful build.