Re: Ada GUI Builders

["Jace Greenman" <jace@everywareinc.NOSPAMcom>]

Bruce,

Based on my experience, you will want to stay away from from a product
called XVT/Ada produced by XVT Corporation.

I worked for CACI (then a sub to LMCO) on the SBIS program as a software
architect for four years starting in late 1993. We started off using SERC
UILtoAda (also mediocre) and went though a couple of other unspectacular
products before the Army decided that their paramount concern was
portability. The XVT people convinced them to pay a ton of money to develop
version 1.0 of an Ada binding to their C product.

To make a long and ugly story short, the Army has since decided to flush all
the Ada and XVT code down the toilet. We got abominable support from the
vendor and had no control over our destiny since XVT/Ada was proprietary and
so immature. You've been warned. :)

If you have some time and money to spare, I'd recommend you buy a number of
products, maybe as many as a half dozen, and prototype a few screens
actually using them. There's no substitute for a real hands-on evaluation.
Most vendors should be willing to grant evaluation licenses for such a
purpose. Be wary of vendors who insist you make a purchase based just on
their dog-and-pony show.

Also, search Dejanews (www.dejanews.com) for threads discussing the various
products. But take what you find with a grain of salt. Newsgroups are where
you will certainly find customer accounts of their experiences, but one or
two disgruntled customers can poison the user community to an otherwise good
product.

Also, ask the vendors for references; not just references that they know to
be good, but say, the last 10 customers to purchase their product. You'll
should get a god measurement of startup and porting issues form those types
of people.

All that aside, are you in the ATM group? At the risk of making a shameless
plug, I've cut over from software engineering myself and started a
consultant-centric staffing agency. As a full-disclosure, fee-for-service
firm, as opposed to the traditional
buy-low-sell-high-and-keep-everyones-rate-a-secret firms, we treat our
consultants very fairly. I personally know a number of very talented Ada
developers and analysts from entry-level through technical lead, and would
welcome to opportunity to discuss business with LM/ATM.

If there's anyone in there you can refer me to, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

Jace Greenman

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LM News wrote in message <6tjh1d$8p82@svlss.lmms.lmco.com>...
>We are looking for an Ada GUI builder.  Can anyone recommend (or warn us
>off) some of the many Ada GUI Builders I have seen advertised?
>
>Many thanks,
>BCD3
>
>