Ada source programs are represented in standard text files, using Latin-1 coding. Latin-1 is an 8-bit code that includes the familiar 7-bit ASCII set, plus additional characters used for representing foreign languages (see Foreign Language Representation for support of non-USA character sets). The format effector characters are represented using their standard ASCII encodings, as follows:
Character Effect Code VT
Vertical tab 16#0B#
HT
Horizontal tab 16#09#
CR
Carriage return 16#0D#
LF
Line feed 16#0A#
FF
Form feed 16#0C#
Source files are in standard text file format. In addition, GNAT will
recognize a wide variety of stream formats, in which the end of
physical lines is marked by any of the following sequences:
LF
, CR
, CR-LF
, or LF-CR
. This is useful
in accommodating files that are imported from other operating systems.
The end of a source file is normally represented by the physical end of
file. However, the control character 16#1A#
(SUB
) is also
recognized as signalling the end of the source file. Again, this is
provided for compatibility with other operating systems where this
code is used to represent the end of file.
Each file contains a single Ada compilation unit, including any pragmas associated with the unit. For example, this means you must place a package declaration (a package `spec') and the corresponding body in separate files. An Ada `compilation' (which is a sequence of compilation units) is represented using a sequence of files. Similarly, you will place each subunit or child unit in a separate file.