Re: Gnat on OpenVMS

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

In article <FC3vx8.5qG@news.boeing.com>,
  nickerson@pundit.ds.boeing.com () wrote:
> wrong; totally & utterly wrong direction; DEC made what I
> would imagine is a $ decision; you should not subsequently
> call that (by implication) the correct technical decision;

Well sure, if DEC had been willing to invest the resources to
update the VMS debugger, not only with respect to Ada 95, but
also with respect to other shortcomings (e.g. lack of
scalability to the multi-processing environment), then that
would have been fine. But given that this was not going to
happen (not just for $$$ reason but for many other reasons),
it was not a viable route.

Note that it was not just $$$ reasons at all here, but also
a significant change in direction for DEC. In downsizing to
avoid extinction, the decision was to do far less in house.
FOr example, Ada was a profitable product for DEC. The decision
to abandon their own Ada technology was not simply a $$$ one
but also a consequence of general trimming back. This often
happens in this situation.

> GDB may be Ada95 knowledgeable but it is nowhere close to the
> VMS debugger in capablity & usablity; based on my brief trials
> with GDB (full screen) it will never get close; that opinion
> coupled with GDB not being the native OS debugger gives a
> drastic  fault in GNAT's applicablity; (but then it is the
> only game in  town for Ada95);

Well it would be a little more useful if you would be more
specific about what you like or don't like about debuggers,
so we can see if there are useful technical points. My
experience is that people have highly subjective views on
the subject, as with editors. And as for the "it will never
get close", you do not begin to have the information to make
that claim. You have not even seen the most up to date version,
let alone what is in the wings!

Right now, there are perhaps 20 or so full time people working
on GDB, perhaps more. 90% of this work is target independent,
and will benefit all users of GDB.

VMS is in a way quite analogous to Ada. A technology with
significantly superior capability in many respects, but one
which is just a niche. With VMS, as with Ada 95, this means
that you need to piggy-back on top of work done for other
platforms as much as possible if you want to keep the
technology alive.


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