From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_SHORT autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 12 Jan 91 00:34:49 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!umriscc!mcs213d.cs.umr.edu!jamesh@ucsd.edu (James Hartley) Subject: Meridian's AdaZ compiler summary Message-ID: <1923@umriscc.isc.umr.edu> List-Id: I received a number of responses regarding Meridian's AdaZ compiler advertized in the November 1990 issue of CACM. I would like to sincerely thank the fol- lowing for sending information to me: yow@sweetpea.jsc.nasa.gov pattis@cs.washington.edu mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu ms33@prism.gatech.edu rharwood@east.pima.edu Many others requested that I summarize what I received, so here it goes... AdaZ is a fully validated Ada compiler and is equivalent to Meridian's AdaVantage 4.1 real mode compiler. AdaZ departs from older versions in that it uses a "BlackBeard"-like (Meridian describes it as "Turbo Pascal"ish) editor instead of MicroEMACS which was used earlier. In the spirit of the current integrated environment fad, the LRM is accessible via a hypertext format along with the debugger from within the environment. The compiler itself does not utilize extended memory, nor does it produce code that takes advantage of it. It was mentioned in one post that this limitation to the lower 640K caused problems with programs of the order of 3000 lines in version 2.2. The code generated will run on 8086 or 80286 architectures, but the 80386 is not currently supported. When I called Meridian about this, I was told that an upgrade will be coming out shortly. 5M of harddisk space is required for the product. For those wishing to use some other editor, the compiler can be invoked via the command line. Several libraries are included with the package along with source code: a generic math library (WG9 Numerics Rapporteur Group), a string handling library as mentioned in the LRM, a graphics library, and a DOSenvironment library. One post mentioned that a definitive review of PC Ada compilers can be found in the 10 September 1990 issue of _PC Week_. Another post mentioned that a number of bugs existed in AdaVantage version 4.0. Most of these bugs were size related WRT large programs -- hard-coded symbol- and link-table sizes. Using RENAME on an array was also found to fail after using the optimizer. Pointers to unconstrained arrays traversed in a FOR-NEXT loop has been found to fail. Meridian has been responsive in fixing many bugs, however, in version 4.1 (AdaZ). Another post described AdaZ as enhancing Meridian's AdaStudent with the LRM online. This respondent cautions that the integrated environment is not as smoothly spliced together when compared to Borland's "Turbo" or Microsoft's "Quick" environments. AdaStudent, however, was "crippled" in that it was not fully validated; AdaZ is fully validated and allows preemptive scheduling, time-slicing, etc. Meridian is also giving legitimate owners of AdaStudent a $50 credit towards purchasing AdaZ. As is seen with other Ada compilers, AdaZ is not as fast at compilation as Microsoft C or Turbo C++; yet for an inexpensive PC Ada compiler, all re- spondents were positive about its value. ----- -- James J. Hartley _ /| Internet: jamesh@cs.umr.edu Department of Computer Science \'o.O' Bitnet: jamesh@cs.umr.edu@umrvmb.bitnet University of Missouri - Rolla =(___)= UUCP: ...!uunet!cs.umr.edu!jamesh "Life is like an analogy..." U ACK! PHFFT!