Re: GNAT Opinions

["Bob" <bklungle@ix.netcom.com>]

We are in the process of migrating 1.1 Million lines of Verdix Ada83 (SGI
IRIX and IBM-RS6000 AIX) and Green-Hills Ada83 (Solaris) to GNAT Ada95. We
are going through ACT and they are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. So
far the only problems have been with the tighter definitions of Ada95 vs
Ada83. The debugger (gdb) is kind of weak compared to Verdix (Rational), but
it is usable. The two problems which we haven't been able to fix yet are not
Ada questions. We want to migrate to INTEL but the little/big endianess is a
major problem with record representation definitions going over a
communications circuit. The other problem of cross targeting the RAD6K
(RS6000) with VxWorks from an INTEL machine, either Linux or NT, is not
currently in anyones planning.

Generally the experiences have been good. The increased tightness of 95
pointed up quite a few pending problems, such as Generic definition
circularity which Verdix 83 let us get away with. We were able to remove
some linked "c" code which was doing bit operations, since ada95 has the
types and operations.

The reasons for choosing GNAT are:
1. PRICE
2. There is a version for every system we have.
3. World wide support, including ACT.
4. PRICE
5. Didn't have to pay extra for multi-processor support as in Verdix.

Hope this helps.

cheers....bob

choboy@calspan.com wrote in message <75rj7i$2cq$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>My company is currently considering converting a multi-program, multi-
>processor, Solaris-based application (~800K lines of code) written in
Verdix
>Ada (SunAda3.0) to a "to be determined" Ada vendor.  GNAT Ada95 is one of
>these compilers under consideration.  I'm looking for opinions from people
>who may have used GNAT in a large-scale development effort such as ours or
>perhaps did some trade studies that resulted in a GNAT go/no-go decision.
>What were your experiences, good or bad?  Why did you choose/not choose
GNAT?
> Would you choose GNAT if you had to do it all over again?  If you paid for
>and used the support from Ada Core Technologies, how was it?  What kind of
>development tools did you use, for example full-screen debuggers?  The
>answers to these and any other opinions you might have would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Bob Choboy
>
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