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From: schizophonic@iol.it
Subject: Re: LOOKING FOR AN ADA COMPILER
Date: 1996/10/19
Message-ID: <54b1b0$tae@mikasa.iol.it>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 190583588
references: <53qpki$d1h@mikasa.iol.it> <dewar.845215861@merv>
organization: Italia Online
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-10-19T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) wrote:

>schizophonic (an interesting name!) asks

(the name is taken from a Robben Ford's record - really wonderful,
try it!)

>"I am a student, and I am looking for a free or inexpensive ADA
>compiler. I have read that GNAT compiler is free, and I would like to
>know your opinion about the quality of the compiler."

>Well several major defence projects and commercial companies seem to 
>think it is suitable for critical projects. Anyway, the nice thing about
>free software is that you can try it out yourself. Just download the
>appropriate version (there are many of them) from cs.nyu.edu, directories
>pub/gnat, and either follow the directions very carefully, or if you do not
>know enough to do installations of this kind, get an instructor or friend
>who does know to help you.

This is true, in teory.
In practice, when one has an Internet access in Italy , and has to
download software from the other side of the world, it is wiser to ask
before spending whole days downloading (as in my case).
By the way, do you know if there is any mirror site of GNAT in Europe?

>Many Ada courses all over the country (including the one I teach) use
>GNAT. It is full Ada 95, and will correspond fine to any Ada 95 text
>you are using. If you are learning Ada 83, then (a) complain to your
>instructor about obsolete languages and (b) use GNAT anyway with the
>-gnat83 switch. This does not provide perfect Ada 83 semantics, but it
>will likely be good enough for your use.

I will complain, if is the case.