Portability accross compilers

[Nicolas Brunot <n.brunot@cadwin.com>]

tmoran@acm.org wrote :

>   To return to the previous topic, I trust we agree that GtkAda's
> portability across OSes sometimes, but not always, exceeds its
> disadvantages in missing functionality under Windows and its
> portability problems across Ada compiler vendors.

(I guess this doesn't deal any more with students homework)
I'd like to insist on the fact that portability is very important, and
that's right to recall that portability between compilers is no exception.

We've been using Ada since the beginning because we didn't want to be tied
to the OS, but also to the compiler, and we tested a lot.
Another advantage is that using several compilers can show code problems
you wouldn't detect with only one compiler.
And chek all along the development that your code work on several
compilers is a requirement, if you want to be ready in case you have to
change the compiler for any reason.
As any software, no compiler is perfect, and competition between them is
good for Ada programmers.

It's really too bad to see Ada tools we don't even think to use, because
they are tied to one compiler.