Re: Ada and Mainframes

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

In article <3887C455.326E0BA4@home.com>, "David A. Cobb" <superbiskit@home.com> writes:
> As I was prowling through IBM manuals ca.1988(?), there was quite a bit
> of General Info type stuff about "Ada/370."  My place of business didn't
> install it, so my joy was tempered.  
> 
> Then I read a newer edition (ca.1994 I think) and there was no mention
> at all.  Did IBM cancel it for lack of interest?  Or is it still out
> there somewhere? 

For whatever reason, IBM transferred their MVS Ada product to
OC Systems, who offer it under the name LegacyAda, alongside their
AIX Ada offerings.  In addition to the typical ways of looking
up a vendor, I believe you can find OC Systems through the AdaIC
web pages, as they participate in various cooperative efforts
between Ada vendors.  There are occasional posts to this group
by OC Systems folk, although I doubt any of them have sales and
marketing experience.

> How about a port of GNAT?  [would that drive IBM wild?]

I am sure IBM would be quite happy to provide access to one of their
porting center MVS machines if someone wanted to port GNAT to MVS
(OS/390 according to their current nomenclature).  Certainly if
someone other than IBM is providing a compiler for their machines,
IBM should have nothing to lose due to the fact that the compiler
happens to be open source.  Note that IBM has hired employees to
spend their time working on the Apache web server.

Larry Kilgallen