Ada and Mainframes

Ada and Mainframes

[David A. Cobb]

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? 

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

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Ted Dennison]

"David A. Cobb" wrote:

> 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?

I don't know about the mainframes, but I know IBM sold their workstation
(AIX) Ada compiler to OC systems several years back. Hmmm....

A quick tour of their website http://www.ocsystems.com/ shows that they have
a product called "LegacyAda/370" for OS/390. I'd bet that's your compiler.

I had a chance to meet some of the OC Ada guys a few years back, when they
were doing on-site support for a project I was working on. They were all
real nice folk. I'm bummed I never really got to use their compiler.

--
T.E.D.

Home - mailto:dennison@telepath.com  Work - mailto:dennison@ssd.fsi.com
WWW  - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html  ICQ  - 10545591

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Tucker Taft]

Ted Dennison wrote:
> 
> "David A. Cobb" wrote:
> 
> > 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?
> 
> I don't know about the mainframes, but I know IBM sold their workstation
> (AIX) Ada compiler to OC systems several years back. Hmmm....
> 
> A quick tour of their website http://www.ocsystems.com/ shows that they have
> a product called "LegacyAda/370" for OS/390. I'd bet that's your compiler.
> 
> I had a chance to meet some of the OC Ada guys a few years back, when they
> were doing on-site support for a project I was working on. They were all
> real nice folk. I'm bummed I never really got to use their compiler.

AverStar also has an Ada 83 compiler for the IBM mainframe.  We are considering
porting our Ada 95 compiler to OS/390, so let us know if you might be interested in helping to
underwrite such an effort.

> --
> T.E.D.

-Tucker Taft  stt@averstar.com
AverStar, Inc. (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.
Burlington, MA  01803-3303

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Vladimir Olensky]

Tucker Taft wrote in message <38891D21.AA678A7E@averstar.com>...

>AverStar also has an Ada 83 compiler for the IBM mainframe.  We are
considering
>porting our Ada 95 compiler to OS/390 ...

Just for curiosity:

What about OS/400 ?


AS/400 midframe ( now it is very compact - almost as small as PC big tower
design) is pushed hardly by IBM  and  it is widely used now by many
corporations
including my company.

So far  most of  the software is written in COBOL, RPG, CL.
Since r.4.0 or r.4.1  of OS/400 (as far as I remember) Java is also
available for OS/400.  Lotus Notes Server is also ported to OS/400.

Is IBM interested in Ada 95 for  OS/400 ?

Regards,
Vladimir Olensky

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[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

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Alfred Hilscher]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu wrote:
> A historical fact about Ada 83 is that among the various hardware companies,
> only DEC did their own compiler. IBM, Sun, Control Data, and others
> all OEM-ed the compilers, or the front ends at least, from the "regular"
> Ada 83 compiler houses: Alsys, TeleSoft, and Verdix (which was absorbed by
> Rational) mostly.

Althought I know that it's not significant: Siemens made it's own Ada
compiler for BS2000 (but I think it was only because they were sponsored
by government ;-) ).

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[mfeldman]

In a previous article,  <kilgallen@eisner.decus.org> writes:
[snip]
>
>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.
>
[snip]

>Larry Kilgallen

I used the Ada 83 IBM compiler a good bit, both at GW and as a teacher 
of in-house Ada courses at IBM Federal Systems. As I recall, IBM's compiler 
was never really developed by IBM. The front end came from TeleSoft (which 
later merged with Alsys, which became Thomson, which became Aonix). The 
ports to AIX, VM, and MVS, were done by OC Systems under contract to IBM.
IBM never did more than market it under their own name. So it was
natural that asa IBM -- like most other hardware companies -- got out of 
the Ada compiler business, eventually these compilers would revert to OC, 
which would commercialize them directly.

Perhaps someone out there knows which front end is used by the OC compilers 
for Ada 95. If I had to make a wild guess, it would be AdaMagic, the
Intermetrics-made front end that is used, among others, in the Aonix
ObjectAda products. Anyone know for sure?

A historical fact about Ada 83 is that among the various hardware companies,
only DEC did their own compiler. IBM, Sun, Control Data, and others
all OEM-ed the compilers, or the front ends at least, from the "regular" 
Ada 83 compiler houses: Alsys, TeleSoft, and Verdix (which was absorbed by
Rational) mostly.

As far as I know, for Ada 95 there are 5 compiler families: GNAT,
AdaMagic/ObjectAda, Rational, DDC-I, and RR. Unless I've missed
something, all others use the front end (at least) from one of these.

Mike Feldman


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Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Faez N. Kaiser]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu wrote:

<snipped>

> Perhaps someone out there knows which front end is used by the OC compilers 
> for Ada 95. If I had to make a wild guess, it would be AdaMagic, the
> Intermetrics-made front end that is used, among others, in the Aonix
> ObjectAda products. Anyone know for sure?

OC Systems Ada 95 compiler is "based" on the Telesoft front end. However,
this front end had to be largely re-written for our Ada 95 compiler.

> A historical fact about Ada 83 is that among the various hardware companies,
> only DEC did their own compiler. IBM, Sun, Control Data, and others
> all OEM-ed the compilers, or the front ends at least, from the "regular" 
> Ada 83 compiler houses: Alsys, TeleSoft, and Verdix (which was absorbed by
> Rational) mostly.

> As far as I know, for Ada 95 there are 5 compiler families: GNAT,
> AdaMagic/ObjectAda, Rational, DDC-I, and RR. Unless I've missed
> something, all others use the front end (at least) from one of these.

I would add the OC Systems/Telesoft compiler to this list of compiler
families.

For those interested in the original thread, information on our LegacyAda
product for the System 370 and 390 mainframe computers is available at
http://www.ocsystems.com (follow the link for Products).

	Regards,
		Faez Kaiser

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[NickiZ]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu wrote:
> 
> In a previous article,  <kilgallen@eisner.decus.org> writes:
> [snip]
> >
> >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.
> >
> [snip]
> 
> >Larry Kilgallen
> 
> I used the Ada 83 IBM compiler a good bit, both at GW and as a teacher
> of in-house Ada courses at IBM Federal Systems. As I recall, IBM's compiler
> was never really developed by IBM. The front end came from TeleSoft (which
> later merged with Alsys, which became Thomson, which became Aonix). The
> ports to AIX, VM, and MVS, were done by OC Systems under contract to IBM.
> IBM never did more than market it under their own name. So it was
> natural that asa IBM -- like most other hardware companies -- got out of
> the Ada compiler business, eventually these compilers would revert to OC,
> which would commercialize them directly.
> 
> Perhaps someone out there knows which front end is used by the OC compilers
> for Ada 95. If I had to make a wild guess, it would be AdaMagic, the
> Intermetrics-made front end that is used, among others, in the Aonix
> ObjectAda products. Anyone know for sure?


The VM and MVS ports were done by TeleSoft.  The OC Systems Ada 95 front
end
was developed by TeleSoft and acquired from Alsys after Alsys acquired
TeleSoft.


> 
> A historical fact about Ada 83 is that among the various hardware companies,
> only DEC did their own compiler. IBM, Sun, Control Data, and others
> all OEM-ed the compilers, or the front ends at least, from the "regular"
> Ada 83 compiler houses: Alsys, TeleSoft, and Verdix (which was absorbed by
> Rational) mostly.
> 
> As far as I know, for Ada 95 there are 5 compiler families: GNAT,
> AdaMagic/ObjectAda, Rational, DDC-I, and RR. Unless I've missed
> something, all others use the front end (at least) from one of these.
> 
> Mike Feldman
> 
>      -----  Posted via NewsOne.Net: Free Usenet News via the Web  -----
>      -----  http://newsone.net/ --  Discussions on every subject. -----
>    NewsOne.Net prohibits users from posting spam.  If this or other posts
> made through NewsOne.Net violate posting guidelines, email abuse@newsone.net


--NickiZ

Re: Ada and Mainframes

[Tucker Taft]

"Faez N. Kaiser" wrote:
> 
> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu wrote:
 > As far as I know, for Ada 95 there are 5 compiler families: GNAT,
> > AdaMagic/ObjectAda

/GreenHills AdaMulti,

> ... Rational, DDC-I, and RR. Unless I've missed
> > something, all others use the front end (at least) from one of these.
> 
> I would add the OC Systems/Telesoft compiler to this list of compiler
> families.

And to round things out, I believe that Harris/Concurrent started from
the old Verdix front end to produce their Ada 95 compiler.  So essentially
all of the old Ada 83 front ends live on, though many have moved to
different companies in a kind of musical chairs.
(Irvine compiler is still alive as well, though they haven't validated
a full Ada 95 compiler yet, as far as I know.)

>                 Faez Kaiser

-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
Technical Director, Distributed IT Solutions  (www.averstar.com/tools)
AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.)   Burlington, MA  USA