Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Gary Vecellio]

Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for
the Mac, AdaZ.  At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is
right.

Gary Vecellio
The MITRE Corporation
McLean Software Engineering Center
{uunet,...}!gateway!community-chest!vecellio
vecellio@community-chest.mitre.org

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Terry J. Westley]

In article <9101081832.AA13711@chance.mitre.org> vecellio@CHANCE.MITRE.ORG (Gary Vecellio) writes:
>
>Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for
>the Mac, AdaZ.  At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is
>right.
>

Is this a new product?  I have Meridian's Ada compiler for the Mac which
retails for around $2000 (two thousand).  It comes with MPW and is not
called AdaZ.  Their new PC compiler is called AdaZ and has been
introduced at a come-on price of $149.

-- 
Terry J. Westley
Arvin/Calspan Advanced Technology Center
P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225
westley%planck.uucp@acsu.buffalo.edu

Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Billy Yow 283-4009]

> Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for
> the Mac, AdaZ.  At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is
> right

The AdaZ product is for the PC.  I don't believe there is an AdaZ
version for the Mac.  Anyone else know?

						Bill Yow
						yow@sweetpea.jsc.nasa.gov

My opinions are my own.

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Michael Feldman]

In article <1991Jan11.144517@magic.Berkeley.EDU> yow@magic.Berkeley.EDU (Billy Yow 283-4009) writes:
>> Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for
>> the Mac, AdaZ.  At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is
>> right
>
>The AdaZ product is for the PC.  I don't believe there is an AdaZ
>version for the Mac.  Anyone else know?
>
Meridian has not announced an AdaZ equivalent for the Mac, but I have heard
them say they intend to do something similar. They were recently allowing
students and teachers to purchase their Mac AdaVantage, which is an MPW-
based system (with MPW bundled) for $200. I'd recommend calling Claudia
Coleman at Meridian (800-221-2522) to get a reading from her on what the
current policy is. 

I have discussed the matter of the Mac system with them a number of times,
over several years. At this point, they are not inclined to pull their
system out from under MPW; their feeling seems to be that serious Mac
programmers will have no trouble using MPW and that Ada is for serious Mac
programmers. Clearly they aren't (yet) seeing the virtue of getting Ada into
those schools that are heavy into Macs because they like the Mac user
interface, which MPW "end-runs" to a large degree (although this is a 
religious matter we needn't debate here, please). If you think a double-
clickable Mac Ada, not tied to MPW, would be a good idea, let Meridian know
and help 'em understand what the potential customer base would be.

There is _not one_ Ada system of this kind in existence: all Mac Ada's
are either MPW-bound or A/UX-bound. Need this be so?

Mike Feldman

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Loren L. Hart]

In article <1991Jan11.144517@magic.Berkeley.EDU> yow@magic.Berkeley.EDU (Billy Yow 283-4009) writes:
>> Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for
>> the Mac, AdaZ.  At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is
>> right
>
>The AdaZ product is for the PC.  I don't believe there is an AdaZ
>version for the Mac.  Anyone else know?
>

I just talked to a salesman from meridian today.  They are going to start
selling their Mac-OS Compiler for the same $149.00 as of the first of February.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren L. Hart			The Ada Ace Group, Inc
loren@cup.portal.com		P.O. Box 36195
				San Jose, CA  95158
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren L. Hart			The Ada Ace Group, Inc
loren@cup.portal.com		P.O. Box 36195
				San Jose, CA  95158

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Michael Feldman]

In article <5917@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> loren@ural.Eng.Sun.COM (Loren L. Hart) writes:
>
>I just talked to a salesman from meridian today.  They are going to start
>selling their Mac-OS Compiler for the same $149.00 as of the first of February.
>
This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW
system (MPW comes bundled, I believe). I'd rather see a real Mac application
instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing. The compiler
is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac.
Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event.

Mike Feldman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. Michael Feldman
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-5253
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[saharbaugh%roo.dnet]

On 15 Jan 91 Mike Feldman writes:
-This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW
-system (MPW comes bundled, I believe). 
Yes, it did
-I'd rather see a real Mac application
-instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing. 
Hmm, what is a "real Mac application".  I quickly learned to like
the MPW.  To me (a systems engineer) it is like having an easy-to-use
interface to a Unix command line system.  I launch MPW then give
textual commands in a desktop window.  I can enter comments, cut and
paste, scroll back and forth and repeat any command with a click and
an "enter", etc.  If I want to know how to format a command line I pull down
Meridian's menu, make selections by clicking etc. and 
Meridian builds the command
line piece-by-piece for me and explains what the command or option will do.
My personal preference is to then cut the command line from Meridian's
menu window to the MPW window.  I'm not too demented(yet) to not
remember what the command and options do, so I use the "real-MAC"-like
feature as help and work out of the MPW window.  
Also I use multifinder and bounce around windows and tools but
for large Ada source files I must turn multifinder off and just use MPW 
because I only have 8MB of RAM(I can't believe I said only 8MB)
-The compiler
-is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac.
Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+
-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event.
So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it.

sam harbaugh  saharbaugh%ROO.DNET@WINNIE.FIT.EDU       
---------------------

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Michael Feldman]

In article <9101171940.AA06518@winnie.fit.edu> saharbaugh%roo.dnet@WINNIE.BERKELEY.EDU writes:

>Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+
>-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event.
>So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it.
>
Looking at Ada, as I almost always do, from a teacher's viewpoint, I am
saying that I have (personally) no problem with MPW or with an MPW Ada;
rather, I have a problem with imposing it on freshmen, especially in today's
world of Turbo Pascal or Think Pascal (or their C equivalents). There is
a time to stick students with all the complexities of a professional
developer's interface, and a time not to. Their first semester is NOT the
time. I have spoken to a number of educators recently, including my own
GW colleagues, who believe that the lack of a development environment
as fast and friendly as Borland's is REALLY hurting Ada in the world of
education. AdaZ is on the right track; it'll do in a pinch. An MPW-
embedded Ada will NOT do for beginners. I've tried it and from that
perspective, I DON'T like it. 

Where is "Think Ada"? Our friends in the Ada vendor world have, as usual,
created a self-fulfilling prophecy by assuming that there is no market for
such a thing. Meridian has been very surprised by the 5000 or so copies
of AdaZ they have sold since November. I'm glad for Meridian, and I'm
glad for Ada, that the thing has sold so well. Perhaps this will send
the right message that the Mac wouldn't be such a bad thing to try either.

There are lots of good Mac programmers, especially around California,
who could port an MPW-embedded compiler to the native system and make it
beginner-friendly. Somehow we've GOT to debunk the myth that Ada is only
for DoD professionals, but the Ada community really needs to help. The
only reason why Think Pascal can run on a 1meg machine, with all its units,
objects, etc., but Ada needs a humongous Mac and MPW to compile "hello,"
is that Think's creators decided to make it work and there's no equivalent
to Think (yet...) in the Ada world. Any takers? Let's swap ideas.

Mike Feldman

Re: Meridian Ada Compiler for the Mac

[Doug Gosciak]

In <9101171940.AA06518@winnie.fit.edu> saharbaugh%roo.dnet@WINNIE.BERKELEY.EDU writes:

>On 15 Jan 91 Mike Feldman writes:
>-This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW
>-system (MPW comes bundled, I believe). 
>Yes, it did
>-I'd rather see a real Mac application
>-instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing. 
>Hmm, what is a "real Mac application".  I quickly learned to like
>the MPW.  To me (a systems engineer) it is like having an easy-to-use
>interface to a Unix command line system.  I launch MPW then give
>textual commands in a desktop window.  I can enter comments, cut and
>paste, scroll back and forth and repeat any command with a click and
>an "enter", etc.  If I want to know how to format a command line I pull down
>Meridian's menu, make selections by clicking etc. and 
>Meridian builds the command
>line piece-by-piece for me and explains what the command or option will do.
>My personal preference is to then cut the command line from Meridian's
>menu window to the MPW window.  I'm not too demented(yet) to not
>remember what the command and options do, so I use the "real-MAC"-like
>feature as help and work out of the MPW window.  
>Also I use multifinder and bounce around windows and tools but
>for large Ada source files I must turn multifinder off and just use MPW 
>because I only have 8MB of RAM(I can't believe I said only 8MB)
>-The compiler
>-is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac.
>Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+
>-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event.
>So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it.

>sam harbaugh  saharbaugh%ROO.DNET@WINNIE.FIT.EDU       
>---------------------

Did I miss something? " A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event."? 
Does this mean that AdaZ is available for the MPW environment on the Mac? Please
say yes!!!!


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snail: Doug R. Gosciak     Quote: Become the one    Net: gosciak@muondev.uucp
       3321 Wyoming SW            you dream you     GEnie: DGOSCIAK
       Wyoming, MI 49509          can be.           CI$: 72115,703