RE: Ada for the Mac

[Neil O'Brien <obrien@east.thomsoft.com>]

On Sunday, September 08, 1996, Arthur Evans Jr wrote...
> In article <322ED21A.678@thomsoft.com>, Ed Falis <falis@thomsoft.com>
wrote:
> 
> > We (Alsys/Thomson) haven't sold a Mac compiler in a very long time.
> > -- 
> > Ed Falis        
> > Thomson Software   falis@thomsoft.com   (617) 221-7341
> > ========================================================
> 
> While this statement is undoubtedly true, it is quite misleading to the
> extent that it seems to imply something about the Mac market.  In fact,
> all it says is something about the Alsys product line.
> 
> Alsys developed their Ada-83 compiler under System 6 (that is, version 6
> of the MacOS).  When Apple came out with System 7 some five years ago,
> Alsys elected not to upgrade their product so that it would run under
> System 7.  I and others pointed out in this forum that their failure to
> do so was, in effect, an announcement that they were abandoning the
> product line.  To my knowledge, Alsys has never denied that claim.
> 
> So it's not surprising that they haven't sold any compilers.  They don't
> offer a product that anyone could possibly want.
> 
> I'll be happy to learn that I'm wrong about this.  Ed Falis can readily
> refute my claim by telling us all about their Ada-95 compiler for the
> PowerMac platform.  But I won't hold my breath...
> 
> Art Evans
> 
> Arthur Evans Jr, PhD        Phone: 412-963-0839
> Ada Consulting              FAX:   412-963-0927
> 461 Fairview Road
> Pittsburgh PA  15238-1933
> evans@evans.pgh.pa.us
> 


Market forces, the original compiler was bought in too small a quantity to
justify upgrading to System 7. As for the new technology, it would be a
whole new development to put ObjectAda onto PowerMac no doubt if we
thought there was adequate market to support the development and
maintenance of this we would develop it.

You sort of answered your own statement, we never upgraded because it was
originally a product too few customers wanted. A perception (valid or not)
is that the mac is not a serious development platform for embedded systems
(and markets where Ada / Ada95 is generally strong), whilst that
perception continues I doubt if any vendor is willing to swallow the
development costs in the hope a market would be able to pay back these
development costs and support future upgrades.

If an investor was willing to pay for porting costs I'm sure we would do
it but then those costs wouldn't be cheap and I can't see that investment
being made unless a large government funded project comes along that
mandates Ada95 on a PowerPC and the investor knows they will land that
contract.

Of course I'm only a support engineer (who used to support the mac product
many moons ago) and thus don't speak for the company officially but the
above would be my "educated guestimate" of the situation.

--

=========================================================
Neil O'Brien			obrien@east.thomsoft.com
Customer Support		(617) 221 7320
Thomson Software Products


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