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From: simon@bowfin.cs.washington.edu (Kevin Simonson)
Subject: Re: Yearly Fees for Support of Compiler
Message-ID: <1991May8.184421.2746@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
Summary:  I retract!  I retract!
Keywords: retract ada sun compile
Sender: news@beaver.cs.washington.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
References: <172546@<1991May3> <20600104@inmet>
Date: Wed, 8 May 91 18:44:21 GMT
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

     In article <20600104@inmet> stt@inmet.inmet.com writes:

=
=> Re:  Yearly Fees for Support of Compiler
=>   Written  1:25 pm  May  3, 1991 by simon@bowfin.cs.washington.edu 
=> 
=>      I posted an article just a few days back about a problem getting the
=> vendor that sold us (the University of Washington) an Ada compiler for our
=> Sun 4, to look into a suspected bug in that compiler.  It turns out this
=> company DOES support its compilers, but only if we pay for that support, a
=> fee every year, apparently just in case there are bugs in the company's
=> compiler that its programmers overlooked.
=> 
=>      ... Are there companies that ... sell people their
=> compiler and will look into suspected bugs without charging a yearly fee?
=> 
->      I can understand human error in coding the compilers, but it seems to
=> me that such error shouldn't have to be payed for by the people using the
=> compiler.
=
=This is a pretty narrow attitude.  Supporting an Ada compiler is one
=of the most expensive undertakings in the software world.  ...
=
=-S. Tucker Taft
=Intermetrics, Inc.

     This is the second time I have really stuck my foot in my mouth over
the newsgroups.  Tucker is just one of many people who have pointed out to
me (until now by e-mail) that it's simply impossible to support something
as complicated as an Ada compiler without somebody to pay for it, and that
if the company tried to pay for it itself it would run out of money very
fast.

     So I have seen the error of my ways.  My post did indeed reflect "a
pretty narrow attitude," but I have repented, and will try to take a more
open-minded view of realities in the world of software.

                                      ---Kevin Simonson
-- 
Murphy's Law of Aerodynamics:  When the weight of the paperwork equals the
                               weight of the airplane, the airplane flies.