Re: GNAT GPL Edition Maintenance and Upgrades

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

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> I can't find statements that Ada Core is/was commited to releasing
> only GMGPL packages of their software.
> I do remember reading that they would continue to contribute
> their sources to the FSF tree.

A quote from a message from Robert Dewar of ACT/AdaCore speaking
on behalf of ACT/AdaCore on September 14, 1997 announcing GNAT
3.10p here in comp.lang.ada:

"Ada Core Technologies will continue to develop the GNAT
technology, and make public releases from time to time
reflecting the state of this important developing technology."

I agree with the old saying: "Actions speak louder than words".

NYU/ACT/AdaCore did _only_ GMGPL "public releases" for 10 years
from 1994 through 2004 (not a single GPL only release was done
by AdaCore until 2005).

The public promise to keep making public releases combined with
the fact that for 10 years ACT/AdaCore only did GMGPL releases
is why some of us are disappointed in the GPL only public
release by AdaCore in 2005.

Also, AdaCore was completely consistent for that entire 10 year
period in it's announced philosophy which showed AdaCore
understood that Ada is _not_ C++ and needs all the help it can
get to keep Ada from dying out as a language.

Maybe AdaCore now thinks that Ada has hit the big time and no
longer needs all the help it can get. From 1994 to 2004 that
meant that small shops that must do proprietary closed source
work to survive, but who cannot at least initially afford a
vendor's support were able to use a commercial quality (but not
validated) compiler called GNAT.  Now they must buy a non-GNAT
Ada compiler, or as has been noted elsewhere, switch to
Borland's Delphi (if they like strongly typed languages) or
switch to C++, etc. Not a positive step for the Ada language in
the long run.

Steve