Re: Increased Interest In Ada?

[Marin David Condic <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org>]

I've seen plenty of development kits wherein some company will sell you a
developmental version of their SBC, the cross compiler, (related tools), cable to
your PC & documentation for in the neighborhood of $500. (Of course, this is with
C as the programming language.) That ought to be within the budget of the serious
student if it was used for more than one class. It would at least be within the
budget of the school's computer lab to have 3 or 4 available for student's to do
their lab work on. A company selling the kit might give away several sets of their
documentation or make them available at an inexpensive price, so I don't see much
standing in the way of students getting the material they need.

The real problem is having a similar environment with an Ada compiler. No
technical reason why it couldn't exist at a similar price - just apparently not an
economic powerhouse or someone would have likely done it by now.

(My favorite Alan Greenspan joke: Greenspan is walking down the street with his
wife. His wife sees a $20 bill on the ground and points it out to Alan. He
replies: "You must be mistaken dear. If there were a $20 bill on the ground,
someone would have picked it up by now!")

MDC

Cesar Rabak wrote:

> >I am
> > currently working with a box that has a MIPS processor and almost the whole
> > system on a single chip. So a 32-bit processor able to control some
> > physical/electrical devices from a single board at an inexpensive price is
> > not at all out of the question. The problem is: Which One?
>
> This is an interesting question! It had to be inexpensive with abundant
> (and perhaps free) documentation available, and if possible a chip which
> people would feel it is worthwhile to expend time on it.

--
=============================================================
Marin David Condic - Pace Micro - http://www.pacemicro.com/
Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g
Visit my web site at:  http://www.mcondic.com/

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
=============================================================