Re: IBM Ada Compiler

[enterpoop.mit.edu!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!darw in.sura.net!source.asset.com!tannend@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (David M. Tannen)]

I own two MS-DOS Ada compilers, Meridian v4.1.1 and Alsys FirstAda
5.1.1. Depending on what you are trying to do either compiler can meet
your needs.

If you are doing small (<10k SLOC) systems and you will not be using
tasking or generics very much the Meridian compiler is not a bad buy.  I
was told that the underlying compiler technology is a C compiler though
(i.e. your Ada code is translated to C and then compiled).  This has 
caused me some problems (code that compiled and ran fine for Meridian
but caused legal run time problems under Alsys).

The Alsys compiler is a much more mature technology.  You can build
large systems with it.  The problem with Alsys is you will have to buy a
library from another company to get at some of the DOS stuff you might
need (Meridian includes some DOS interface packages).

There is also a company, Objective Interface Systems, which sells a
program which allows you to build nice DOS Character based user
interfaces. It is very easy to use.  It is available for both compilers. 

The big problem with both of these compilers is that they do not compare
with what you can get for other languages in the DOS/Windows market.
After struggling for over a year to build a product using both of these
compilers I gave up and bought Borland's Object Pascal.  I really wish
someone would build an Ada compiler and environment as nice as what
Borland makes (at the same kind of price).

I have written to Alsys and Meridian about this and the response back is
that they have expenses that the commercial compiler manufacturers do
not have.  (Of course if they offered a compiler and environment that
could compete with Borland/Microsoft they might be selling more units.)

David Tannen
tannend@source.asset.com
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-- "Dependence on wizardry to mitigate the fundamental limitations
--  of software is called 'hacking'."  Grady Booch.
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