Re: Digital and Ada ?

[l107353@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com (Garlington KE)]

Bevin R. Brett (brett@ada9x.enet.dec.com) wrote:

: If you have developed a lot of code in Ada for VAX/VMS, then you can continue
: to compile it with the same compiler that you have for the last 10 years, and
: which is still being maintained.

As long as you want to use a subset of Ada (95) for any maintenance or new
development. As was noted in my original post, if you want to use Ada 95 on
VAX/VMS, SOL.

: If you want to reuse that code in an Ada'95 environment on a VMS system,
: then it probably is not a VAX system, but an Alpha one.  As I said in my
: earlier post, we are still investigating the business case for Ada'95 on
: VMS to try to determine the best thing to do.

We have an Ada 95 compiler on our VAX/VMS system today. Unfortunately, it's
targeted to the MIL-STD-1750. Many of our cross-compiler users like to compile
their code using a self-targeted compiler first, and then use the cross-
compiler later. Unfortunately, with the abandonment of the VAX, they now have
a quandry: If they use Ada 95 features supported on their cross-compiler, they
can no longer use the obsolete VAX/VMS compiler. If they don't, they are losing all
the benefits of Ada 95. Many of them are choosing to stick to Ada 87 until
a VAX/VMS toolset becomes available. But, hey, why worry about whether or not
F-22 uses Ada 95? It's not a highly visible program in DoD, or anything like
that...

As for Alphas, we're looking at when we'll junk our huge investment in VAXen
and go to the next big thing. Given the funding for F-22, it should happen in,
say, five years at the earliest. Of course, some people are getting tired of
DEC and want to go to something other than Alpha, so who knows? The point is,
there are a lot of people that will be using VAX/VMS as a development platform
for some time, despite DEC marketing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Garlington                  GarlingtonKE@lfwc.lockheed.com
F-22 Computer Resources         Lockheed Fort Worth Co.

If LFWC or the F-22 program has any opinions, they aren't telling me.