Ada applications can be executed natively by creating and applying an External Tools launch configuration. Remember that launch configurations can be reused indefinitely; they need not be created anew each time a given application is to be executed.
Creating a new launch configuration is easiest if the executable has already been generated.
To create a new External Tools launch configuration, use the External Tools dialog, which can be invoked using either the Run menu or the External Tools button and selecting the Open External Tools Dialog... entry. The following figure illustrates use of the Run menu:
Using the External Tools button on the button bar is shown in this figure:
Once invoked, the External Tools dialog page will pop up. Initially, when no launch configurations have yet been created, it will appear as follows:
Create a new configuration by selecting the "Program" category and then pressing the "New" button above the category list. This will invoke the wizard to walk you through the creation steps. The initial new configuration page will appear as follows:
Change the name of the configuration to something meaningful, unless you do not intend to save and reuse this configuration. Then, in the "Main" tab, either enter the location of the executable or browse to it. Similarly, specify the path to the directory in which the executable should be launched. You may also specify any command line parameters to apply when invoking the executable.
Once you have entered the information for the "Main" tab, press the Apply button to save the information. The other tabs ("Refresh", etc.) can be left unchanged in typical usage.
The sample configuration for our Mil-Std-1553 demonstration application is shown below, prior to pressing Apply (because the configuration is still named "New_configuration" in the list of all known Program configurations).
When the above is correctly specified, press Apply. The new launch configuration name will appear in the list of known configurations and the page will appears as shown below. You can now press Close to exit the dialog; the new launch configuration is ready to use. Alternatively, you can launch the application by pressing Run. We discussing launching in Executing Native Ada Applications.
