Re: GNAT 3.03 for OS/2

[Ted Dennison <dennison@escmail.orl.mmc.com>]

Tore Joergensen wrote:
> 
> Dale Pontius (pontius@twonky.btv.ibm.com) wrote:
> : Therefore, if folks are really interested in OS/2 GNAT, we should get
> : either Paying Customers, or someone willing to assist with the OS/2
> : porting effort. Some of the GNAT ports are currently maintained by
> : volunteers, so there is precedent for this.
> 
> If there aren't any military projects or something like that made on
> OS/2, I think it will be difficult to find people that will pay $1200
> each year for support. I'm sure the support is fast and good, but at
> least I can't afford to use that kind of money on a programming language.
> Professional programmers that make general purpose programs are likely
> to choose another language, since there aren't many nice libraries for


$1,200 a year is about what support for most commercial development 
environments runs. An example from a study we did about 1.5 years 
ago showed the following support prices:
 For Ada compilers
   VADSSELF HP 9000     $1,356 /year/user
   VADSSELF Windows NT  $1,000 /year/user
   AdaWorld HP 9000     $1,600 /year 1 user (price per user goes down
                                             as more users are added)
   AdaWorld NT          $600 /year/user

 For GUI builders:
   Altia                $1900 /year
   XDesigner            $500  /year/user
   InTouch              $1000 /year

Support for Microsoft C++ is even more expensive, but it can also be 
had for $100 per phone call. Typically in the commercial world, any
development environment will cost you AT LEAST $600, and you still 
have to pay a grand for support (without which, updates cost extra 
too). Do you really find that preferable?

-- 
T.E.D.          
                |  Work - mailto:dennison@escmail.orl.mmc.com  |
                |  Home - mailto:dennison@iag.net              |
                |  URL  - http://www.iag.net/~dennison         |