Re: GNAT versions ( was :Ada compiler for PC?)

[Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-dejanews.com>]

In article <7fq3mh$16m1@news1.newsguy.com>,
  Samuel Mize <smize@imagin.net> wrote:

> I've just heard complaints based
> in a desire to see and comment on work in progress, and
> the occasional
> vague suspicion that wavefronts have "the good stuff."

Well some wavefronts have "the good stuff", but
unfortunately, from time to time, some of them, especially
the ones we do NOT send to anyone at all, have "the bad
stuff".

Asking for wavefronts to be widely distributed is sort of
like asking for drugs to be made available immediately
to the public before they are tested. It might save some
lives, but also may kill some people!

It's our job to separate the good from the bad, and make
sure that only the good stuff gets to the final releases.
We are getting pretty near that point with 3.12 now, and so
pretty soon the Ada community, both those using the
commercial version of GNAT Professional, and those using
the public version, will be able to get their hands on
all the good stuff.

I will post announcements here on CLA as the 3.12 release
process progresses. It will go through the following
stages:

1. Preliminary beta release for selected targets to
selected users.

2. General beta release of GNAT Professional available
to all our customers, available on almost all targets.

3. Official release of GNAT Professional, available on
all supported targets.

4. Release of the public version on all targets.

One thing that we like to do if we can is to distribute
for all targets at about the same time (we get yelled at
loudly on CLA and elsewhere if we don't release for all
targets at about the same time, since that understandably
frustrates people -- yes yes I know the OS/2 users are
frustrated right now for example, and this is a situation
that we try to avoid). So we like to wait till kinks on
all targets are ironed out before distributing the public
version.

But everything is going smoothly, there are significant
functionality improvements, performance improvements,
new tools, and many bugs fixed in 3.12.

For those interested in learning more about our release
procedures and policies, they have been discussed at length
on CLA in the past, so a scan of the Dejanews archives will
undoubtedly tell you all that you want to know, and more
on this issue.

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies

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