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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 12 Feb 93 19:02:36 GMT From: agate!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!The-Star.h oneywell.com!umn.edu!paperboy.micro.umn.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio- state.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!ajpo.sei (David Weller) Subject: Re: Public Release of AdaSAGE (Re: Why is the DOE selling AdaSage?) Message-ID: <1993Feb12.140236.17210@sei.cmu.edu> List-Id: In article <1993Feb12.173406.8810@beaver.cs.washington.edu> drupp@cs.washington .edu (Douglas Rupp) writes: >In article eachus@oddjob.mitre.org (Ro bert I. Eachus) writes: > > .... stuff deleted ... > >> >> 3) I have little experience with AdaSAGE and no recent experience, >>but the ordering information lists versions for 80x86, RS/6000, Sun >>SPARC, and AT&T 3B2, with PC versions coming in both Alsys and >>Meridian versions. Sounds portable (or at least significantly ported) >>to me. >> >> [deletia] >> >> Robert I. Eachus >> > .... more stuff deleted ... > >As I recall AdaSage is distributed in source code form, therefore >it seems to me that an Ada program which needs to have a different version >for each and every platform and compiler in existence just lends credence >to the comments in Greg's last post about lack of portability. > >A properly designed and written program should have compiler and platform >dependencies isolated to as few packages as possible. In general these >dependencies are the command line interface, which is different even >among compilers from the same vendor on different platforms; and the >interface to the system runtime and C application libraries. There is >no good reason for a system such as AdaSage to require a different version >for every platform/vendor. > My experience with AdaSAGE has shown that is is very non-portable. This is not to say it can't run on different platforms, just that the effort to port the system is non-trivial. Perhaps most importantly is that the schema display program, THOR, which displays the information from AdaSAGE, requires the use of a PC (Intel-based system). In spite of the bragging about the portability, there are limitations to just _how_ portable AdaSAGE really is. DISCLAIMER: My knowledge of AdaSAGE is about 1.5 years old. If my above comments are outdated, please let me know. Also, the last I heard, THOR was written in Modula-2. ----------I don't speak for the AJPO or CAE-Link : Aren't we lucky? ;-) ----- David Weller, | Space Station Training Facility: Like the real CAE-Link, | thing, only you can step outside for a breath Space Technology Div. | of fresh air! ----I'm the Ultimate International Masochist: I speak Ada AND Esperanto!-----