Re: Yearly Fees for Support of Compiler

[stt@inmet.inmet.com]

> Re:  Yearly Fees for Support of Compiler
>   Written  1:25 pm  May  3, 1991 by simon@bowfin.cs.washington.edu 
> 
>      I posted an article just a few days back about a problem getting the
> vendor that sold us (the University of Washington) an Ada compiler for our
> Sun 4, to look into a suspected bug in that compiler.  It turns out this
> company DOES support its compilers, but only if we pay for that support, a
> fee every year, apparently just in case there are bugs in the company's
> compiler that its programmers overlooked.
> 
>      Does anyone know if this is common?  Are there companies that instead
> of charging a "compiler insurance" yearly fee, will just sell people their
> compiler and will look into suspected bugs without charging a yearly fee?
> 
>      I can understand human error in coding the compilers, but it seems to
> me that such error shouldn't have to be payed for by the people using the
> compiler.

This is a pretty narrow attitude.  Supporting an Ada compiler is one
of the most expensive undertakings in the software world.  These compilers
must be revalidated on a regular basis, with an ever growing and
changing validation suite.  Furthermore, the marketplace demands
faster compilers, better code quality, and more features year after
year.  Can you really expect all of this "support" to be free?

Sure, if you want last year's compiler with a bug fix or two, perhaps
you might expect that to be (nearly) free.  However, nothing ever
stands still, certainly not in the Ada compiler world.  Us programmers
may be cheapskates, but we don't work for free!

-S. Tucker Taft
Intermetrics, Inc.
Cambridge, MA  02138