Re: POLL: Would you use Ada more if...

["Juha Valimaki" <juha.valimaki@xdsloy.com>]

"John McCabe" wrote:
> Are you aware that ACT are starting to push their GPS product? This
> sounds like exactly what is needed (and like what you are suggesting).
> I would have loved to have the opportunity to pay, for example,
> $150.00 for something like that with tools that would compete with the
> standard edition of Visual C++, but I can't see ACT doing that (they
> have certainly not shown any interest in the past in that market in my
> experience).

At the moment there are two ways to use GNAT: pay for support or just use it
for free. Using it for free doesn't sound like wise business plan if I am
going write a lot of code that depends on the fact GNAT is available on
every platform I need. Paying for support is okay if I get more value from
the product. If I had 10 developers the situation would be different, but as
I am working alone I really have to think if I get best value for my money.
I believe there have been other small development teams that have turned to
other options because of ACT policy. How many potential Ada users are lost
that way nobody knows... It certainly would be great news if ACT started
selling some kind of "limited edition" support or something else that would
make them (at least some) money, but wouldn't burden too much. Damn, if they
sold GNAT CDs for $500 I would buy! (They get money to create a better
product, I get to be more certain there will be tools for me in the future
also)

ObjectAda seems nice product, but it's unfortunately not going to be
available on Macs... (not yet!). OS X is kind of a unix, so I think it would
be good idea to check if the effort to port really is that big. (Well, they
would of course have to support the platform also and it might be bad if
there aren't enough users... I can only hope).

The reason why I need Mac/Linux/Win/Unix (SGI actually) is that I am
developing graphics sw and these days Linux and Mac are gaining very fast
users on that market. If I happened to be planning a plugin for an animation
package it would quite likely have to be available for all these
platforms... ;-)

Juha





-----------== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Uncensored Usenet News ==----------
   http://www.newsfeed.com       The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----= Over 100,000 Newsgroups - Unlimited Fast Downloads - 19 Servers =-----