Re: Dec Ditching Ada?

[brendanb@marvin.ilo.dec.com (Brendan Boulter)]

Hi,

Here's a copy of Digital's Ada'95 strategy for OpenVMS, Unix and NT (which
was posted last November). Hopefully this should clarify the situation !

- Brendan


  DIGITAL'S ADA '95 STRATEGY FOR OpenVMS, DIGITAL UNIX AND WINDOWS NT
  ===================================================================
    
  On November 6, Digital Equipment Corporation announced a new step in its 
  Ada 95 strategy for OpenVMS evolution.  To accommodate its customers with 
  mixed platform environments, Digital has expanded its Ada users' options 
  with the port of Ada Core Technologies (ACT) GNAT Ada compiler to Digital's 
  OpenVMS platform.  Now, users have the option of using the GNAT compiler 
  directly on OpenVMS Alpha.  Customers can also choose Rational Apex for 
  Ada, which is a complete Ada 83/95 development environment from Rational 
  Software Corporation.  Rational Apex combined with Rational's Remote 
  Compilation Integrator (RCI) on Digital UNIX Alpha will support a mixed 
  environment consisting of Ada 83/95 development on OpenVMS Alpha or Digital 
  UNIX.
    
  Digital's OpenVMS Ada Strategy
  ------------------------------
  Digital Equipment and Ada Core Technologies (ACT) recently announced that 
  ACT will port GNAT to the OpenVMS Alpha platform and enhance it with 
  Digital-specific bindings.  With the addition of the Digital 
  extensions/bindings to GNAT, and the incorporation of the Ada '83 standard 
  within Ada '95, users will be able to move their applications to the new 
  standard and retain the reliability and speed of the OpenVMS Alpha 
  platform.  ACT will make available a fully functional, validated version of 
  GNAT for OpenVMS Alpha as well as offer the Ada marketplace full support 
  for the product.  GNAT on OpenVMS is expected to be available next summer.
    
  GNAT is an Ada 95 compiler which implements the full Ada 95 language 
  defined by the ISO standard, including all optional annexes.  Ports to more 
  than 30 machines and operating systems environments, including Intel x86 
  (eight different operating systems), most RISC-based machines, the Amiga, 
  and the 1750-A, are currently available.  Additionally, GNAT  features full 
  cross-compilation capability.
    
  Rational Software Corporation is Digital's premier Ada partner.  Rational 
  Apex is a robust software development environment that run on Digital UNIX 
  Alpha, as well as other open systems platforms.  Rational Apex with RCI 
  supports Ada 83/95 development on Digital UNIX with program deployment on 
  OpenVMS Alpha, OpenVMS VAX (Ada 83 only), Digital UNIX Alpha, all major 
  UNIX hosts, and a wide variety of embedded processors including Alpha 
  Single Board Computer.  Software developers will be able to develop and 
  test both target-independent and target-dependent software with Rational 
  Apex using its rich underlying semantic information and architecture 
  control capabilities.  Target-independent code will execute under the 
  control of Rational Apex on the Digital UNIX Alpha host while 
  target-dependent software can be developed and integrated on the Rational 
  Apex host (a Digital UNIX machine) and then tested while executing on the 
  ultimate target.  A user will be able to manage a host-based, single-or 
  multiple-target application with Rational Apex and RCI and Rational's 
  powerful configuration management and version control (CMVC) capabilities.
    
  "Having the GNAT Ada 95 compiler available on Digital's Alpha running 
  OpenVMS will mean users can take full advantage of the Rational Apex 
  environment hosted on Alpha running Digital UNIX while deploying developed 
  Ada 95 applications on OpenVMS Alpha," said Kevin Nix, director of 
  marketing at Rational Software Corporation.
    
  "Digital will be offering our OpenVMS customers a viable alternative to 
  pursue an Ada 95 implementation," said Steve Jenkins, vice president of the 
  Commercial Software Products Group.  "This solution offers our OpenVMS 
  users an opportunity to take advantage of OpenVMS reliability and the Alpha 
  technology."
    
  OpenVMS brings proven mission critical capabilities to user's solutions. 
  Customers have been deploying OpenVMS in bet-your-business/mission critical 
  environments for years.  Consistently OpenVMS is ranked near the top of 
  analyst reports and software studies in attributes that customers consider 
  important in deploying solutions that require continuous operation.
    
  Digital's UNIX Ada Strategy
  ---------------------------  
  As Digital's premier partner for Ada '95 on the Digital UNIX and NT 
  platforms, Rational has formed a strategic alliance with Digital for the 
  Ada market. Similarly, Digital's Alpha architecture has become the primary 
  platform for Rational's software.  Rational's Ada '95 software tools are 
  Digital's strategic Ada '95 solution for Digital UNIX.  All new Rational 
  Ada products and new functionality will be brought to market first on Alpha 
  to provide customers with early access to new capabilities.  Further, 
  Rational develops its Ada software for superior performance and quality of 
  operation on Alpha.
    
  Rational Apex Ada is an integrated, interactive software engineering 
  environment for controlling the development of complex software systems.  
  Newly available for the Alpha platform, it facilitates the development 
  process by incorporating new code-generation technology and optimizations 
  from Rational's VADS compiler line, resulting in improved code quality.
    
  Digital's Alpha Provides an Industry-Leading Solution
  -----------------------------------------------------
  Rational's software products on Digital's AlphaStations and AlphaServers 
  are the best choice for fastest time-to-market and the lowest 
  cost-to-market for Ada software projects.  Production is hassle-free and 
  users enjoy binary compatibility across the entire line of workstations and 
  servers, dispelling worries or concerns about recompiling when adding 
  capabilities. 
    
  In addition, Digital offers the most standards-compliant UNIX in the 
  industry as defined by X/OPEN, ensuring portability to other less compliant 
  vendors platforms, whether BSD or System V.  As another porting advantage, 
  Digital offers the ability to develop in either UNIX or NT and deploy on 
  UNIX, OpenVMS, NT and the broadest spectrum of target processors while 
  investing in only one hardware platform.  And as a convenience feature, 
  Digital offers users the ability to reconfigure your file system on-line, 
  with no down time necessary.
    
  Digital's Product --  DEC Ada 
  -----------------------------
  DEC Ada is Digital's high performance, self host Ada '83 compiler 
  availableacross OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha , and Digital UNIX Alpha.  The 
  DEC Ada product family is extended with EDS-Scicon's XD Ada cross-platform 
  compilers for the Motorola family of microprocessors and MIL-STD-1750A 
  targets for OpenVMS on both VAX and Alpha.  Digital's plans are to continue 
  to offer DEC Ada across all three platforms and support it well into the 
  future.  The DEC Ada Version 3.3 family of product releases are planned for 
  the coming year.
    
  "After careful consideration, Digital has decided to not take DEC Ada to 
  the Ada '95 standard on any platform," added Steve Jenkins.  "By working 
  with industry and technology leaders such as Rational and ACT, we believe 
  we'll be able to best meet our user's needs."
    
  The ultimate goal of the Rational, ACT and Digital partnership is to help 
  user's move from the Ada '83 standard to the Ada '95 standard.  The 
  products, migration tools and services resulting from this strategic 
  alliance are designed specifically to help users achieve these goals.

-- 
 +---------------+
 | d i g i t a l |           Brendan Boulter 
 +---------------+
            
 Tel: (+353-91) 754906       Digital Equipment Corporation
 Fax: (+353-91) 754435       Scientific & Technical Computing Group
 Net: boulter@ilo.dec.com    Ballybrit, Galway 
 DTN: 822 4906               Ireland 



-- 
 +---------------+
 | d i g i t a l |           Brendan Boulter 
 +---------------+
            
 Tel: (+353-91) 754906       Digital Equipment Corporation
 Fax: (+353-91) 754435       Scientific & Technical Computing Group
 Net: boulter@ilo.dec.com    Ballybrit, Galway 
 DTN: 822 4906               Ireland