Re: Ada Compilers

[dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison)]

"Kai Schuelke" <kai.schuelke@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<3ce2e29f.0@news.unibw-muenchen.de>...
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pascal Obry" <p.obry@wanadoo.fr>
> Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:38 PM
> Subject: Re: Ada Compilers
> 
> 
> > Note that there is only one free (speech) Ada compiler, and it is the
>  single
> > Ada compiler to implement all Ada annexes.

> could you please explain whats the difference to the Aonix compiler? Or
> which annexes the other compilers didn't implement? I am just a beginner but
> my first impression was that Aonix produced more "reliable" results. But
> thats just a feeling.

Well, I certianly can't explain why you'd think its results are more
"reliable", unless this is some new meaning to the word of which I am
unaccustomed. :-)

The free (no cost) downloadable Aonix compiler doesn't support the
distributed system annex. There might be some more annexes it doesn't
have either, but nothing that would impair a beginner's ability to
program on Windows. It main drawback is that it is crippleware. Once
your program gets past a certian size, the compiler will refuse to
compile it. If you are just playing around with little programs, you
aren't likely to hit that limit though. If you do, you can fix that by
going out and purchasing the full version, which I understand is not
too much more expensive than VisualC++. Not a bad deal at all really.

The Gnu Ada compiler is free in terms of freedom; it, and thus its
users, are not in thrall to any one vendor or person. (See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html for more about what "Free
Software" is all about). It is not crippled in any real way, and I
believe implements *all* the annexes. Its main drawback for some is
that its IDE doesn't resemble the VisualC++ IDE, which a lot of newbie
programmers get lost without. If you are comfortable (or want to learn
to become comfortable) with Emacs, then this is probably the free
compiler for you. Apparently a VC++ style IDE is on the way too.


-- 
T.E.D. 
Home     -  mailto:dennison@telepath.com (Yahoo: Ted_Dennison)
Homepage -  http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html (down)