Alsys FirstAda

Alsys FirstAda

[Richard Pattis]

  I recently received two flyers from Alsys about FirstAda.  From a
FirstReading, it appears that the compiler included in the product is the
standard 286 version of the Alsys compiler (including AdaProbe, AdaMake,
AdaXref, AdaReformat, and AdaVerify) integrated into a menu-driver interface
that includes an editor (you can substitute your own too).  Apart from this,
the memory requirements are 640K + 2Mb extended memory (I recall all the
previous Alsys products to require 4Mb).  The price is listed as $1,815.

Questions:

  1) Is my understanding about the base compiler correct (286, not 386)?
  2) What is the current price of the standard 386-based system (to compare)?
  3) Does it require only 2Mb extra, not the 4Mb normally needed by Alsys?

Any other comments from users of this system are solicited.

Rich Pattis

PS: I still have not been able to get my 386-based system to operate
completely on a RAM-disk (I've got oodles of memory on my 386). I would
like to hear from anyone who has accomplished this feat (and what ram
disk driver they are using).  By using a cache I can pretty much get
everything off disk, except the library.  When I put the library on my
RAM disk, the system consistently crashes.