Re: Is Apex dead as an environment for Ada & Java?

[jim_snead <basswoodNObaSPAM@my-deja.com.invalid>]

In article <384450A7.CAF2722F@averstar.com>, Tucker Taft
<stt@averstar.com> wrote:
> jim_snead wrote:
> >
> > I have been studying the Rational Apex product
> > as an Ada 95 and Java development environment.
> > Apex has an unusual feature called "subsystems"
> > which to me seems quite useless.
> For what it is worth, essentially all Ada compilers have
> something analogous to subsystems, typically called "sublibraries"
> or "catalogs" or some such thing.  Rational's subsystems do have
> more mechanism supporting them.  In most other compilers, a
> sublibrary
> is just another directory with perhaps a specially-named file or
> two (e.g. "ada.lib").  The net result is pretty much the same -- you
> can
> do configuration management over a subset of the sources of a large
> system, and bundle together the sources that make up a conceptual
> "library" of some sort (e.g. a graphics library, a database
> library, etc.) for easier reuse across projects.

If this is alluding to the problem of brittle libraries in
Ada 83 code, I can see why someone might be gun-shy of having
a large subsystem. I have heard many stories of "ada.lib"
libraries in the traditional sense that can easily get
out of sync or get corrupted and lead to massive rebuilds.
If you spread ada.lib's around, not as much can get damaged
at once. A clever deceit on Rational's part but I do not buy it.

What I rather do like is the idea of source based libraries.
Apparently more Ada 95 compiler vendors are turning to
source-based libraries, and they have a reputation of being
very stable.
Therefore I conclude that a lighter-weight directory structure
may be more useful for future growth.

Thanks for the hints.

> Rational subsystems add some amount of visibility control, which
> doesn't seem as useful as it was in Ada 83, given the ability to
> use child units in Ada 95.

Agreed

> --
> -Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
> Technical Director, Distributed IT Solutions
> (www.averstar.com/tools)
> AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.)   Burlington, MA  USA



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