Re: Gnat on OpenVMS

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <FC9A9F.A48@news.boeing.com>, nickerson@mirage.boeing.com () writes:
> 
> In article <7i6a5g$hjq$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, 
> Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-dejanews.com> writes:
> 
> |>Well sure, if DEC had been willing to invest the resources to
> |>update the VMS debugger, not only with respect to Ada 95, but
> |>also with respect to other shortcomings (e.g. lack of
> |>scalability to the multi-processing environment), then that
> |>would have been fine. But given that this was not going to
> |>happen (not just for $$$ reason but for many other reasons),
> |>it was not a viable route.
> 
> am not familiar with limitations or the internals involved; my
> understanding would be that there is a basic debug engine and it
> is coupled with each specific, supported language's "module" for
> expression evalutation & whatnot; could you give a critique of
> the shortcomings as you see them;

Those language modules, however, can only be inserted when the
debugger is built, rather than being inserted by an add-on like
GNAT.  But DEC has a history of fixing such flexibility gaps,
and it could be that in the future they will be motivated to
do so.  Talking to them at the US DECUS Symposium in Providence
next month would certainly help.  That doesn't mean you get the
flexibility you want in the very next release, but DEC does listen
and address such things in the longer term.  I have been told that
they will be addressing one of my requests (unrelated to Ada) that
was made 18 years ago :-).

Larry Kilgallen