Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available

["Steve Whalen" <SteveWhalen001@hotmail.com>]

Ludovic,

First, let me thank you for the work you do keeping GNAT on Debian.
Since I converted to Debian a few years ago, I've used the version of
GNAT you've packaged and really appreciate the work you and the other
maintainers do to keep Debian going.

I wish I could provide you some of the input you seek on the GNAT2005
vs. 3.4 vs. 4.0 vs. etc. debate with respect to quality.  Unfortunatly
I've stuck with the 3.15 you package on Debian, and then I just use the
most compatible version of the same "generation" (aka 3.15) on Windows.

I vote AGAINST any verion of GNAT with the runtime libraries under GPL
instead of the GMGPL.

I vote FOR whichever of the 3 GMGPL runtime library other alternatives
is:

1) most stable and easiest for you to package and maintain (my exposure
to them is so limited as to be of no use to you, sorry).

2) if it's a tie after looking at #1 then whichever version has the
most stable SMP support is my next priority (I'm not sure it's even the
GNAT library that's causing some of the reported SMP problems).

3) if you get some solid feedback from people who have had time to do
some systematic testing between the alternatives, you can convert my
vote to match your judgement of the consensus on which is the most
stable version, and your judgement of which would be easist for you to
package and maintain.

In other words, I'd be willing to give up a little stability or a few
more minor bugs if a version was a LOT easier for you to maintain: if
two choices are about the same amount of work for you, then I'd go for
the most stable.

Sorry I can't give more positive feedback, but it's kind of a chicken
and egg thing: I'm on GNAT 3.15 as long as that's the version in
Debian: as soon as you package something else, I'll try it and if it
handles everything I care about, I'll most likely switch to it.

I'd like to get some of the features of Ada 2005, but not if the price
is dropping the GMGPL on the runtime libraries or going to a less
stable compiler.

Steve