Re: query: Ada for SUN 3/xx running SunOS 4.0

[billwolf@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,)]

From article <248@cui.UUCP>, by bertrand@cui.UUCP (IBRAHIM Bertrand):
> I am currently using Verdix Ada Development System (VADS 5.5) on SUN 3/50
> and 3/60 machines. Our site is running SunOS 3.5 and might soon move to 
> SunOS 4.0. Our local vendor told us that they didn't have yet any Ada
> environment running under SunOS 4.0. Is this correct? 
> 
> Since we intend to buy some new licences, are there other vendors selling
> Ada environments running under SunOS 4.0?

     The Telesoft people have what looks like a wonderful product;
     we here at Clemson are evaluating it for our Suns running 4.0.

     Telesoft has an extremely good compiler interface (windows,
     electronic buttons for the mouse to click on, etc); their
     debugger does not look quite as strong, though.  They have
     a profiler and automatic recompilation facilities.  Also,
     the optimization facilities in their latest release result
     in code which, if Telesoft's benchmarks are believable,
     result in code which runs faster than the code produced 
     by current C compilers.  They also exhibited the code generated
     by the Verdix Ada product (about 35 instructions) at Tri-Ada '88,
     contrasting it with the mere three instructions generated
     under total optimization mode by their product, for one
     particular (no doubt strategically selected) benchmark.

     The Telesoft people, apparently highly confident of the
     quality of their product, invited me to the Telesoft User's
     Group meeting; I found great praise for Telesoft's customer
     support, and no gripes whatsoever.  About the only thing
     I could find at all to pick on regarding Telesoft is that
     their debugger was apparently left in a bare-bones condition
     while personnel were diverted to the mission of creating
     a compiler which could out-optimize C compilers; it looks
     like they've declared victory now and started to focus more
     attention on enhancing the debugger.

     Alsys has a product which has a very nice debugger interface,
     but unfortunately is not very crash-proof; for example,
     any attempt to examine an object which is locally declared
     within a package initialization will crash the debugger.

     The AdaWorld compiler environment is OK, but it really could
     have used some of the pull-down menus, etc., which were
     incorporated into the AdaProbe debugger -- a very nice product,
     if only it didn't itself need debugging!!! 
  
     The Verdix people claimed that their product did run on SunOS 4.0; 
     however, Verdix seems to take user-hostility to new heights.  Their
     claim to be "integrated into the Unix environment" seems to carry
     the hidden caveat "By the way, you *do* like keyboard commands,
     just as cryptic as we can possibly make them?"; in view of the 
     vastly superior user interfaces provided by Alsys and Telesoft, 
     the Verdix product was quickly rejected.