Re: GNAT Support Costs

["Rob Kirkbride" <rob@rk-comp.demon.co.uk>]

Stephen Leake <Stephen.Leake@gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote in message
news:uiu0fl5r6.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov...
> "Rob Kirkbride" <rob@rk-comp.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
> > Thanks for the replies. I think I will stick with using GNAT because it
does
> > seem to be a very good product. Of course I've been using it regularly
for
> > the last few months and on/off for a couple of years before that and it
> > seems to do everything I need.
> >
> > I just feel its a shame that ACT don't want to deal with that side of
the
> > business. Not exactly encouraging people to use Ada rather than C++ or
> > whatever. The end customer may still opt for the support. If not then I
> > suspect it will be used as a last resort!
>
> This implies that you can get the level of support you are interested
> in for a C++ compiler for less than what ACT charges for Ada. Can you be
> specific about what you can get?
>
> The last I checked, being able to ask questions of Microsoft
> engineers, and get real answers, wasn't even on the price list! MS
> sells "developer subscriptions" or something like that, for about
> $2k/year, but that does _not_ include real question/answer support
> (please tell me I'm wrong?).
>
> Does Borland offer something better?
>
> -- Stephe

I feel as if some people are missing the point.I agree some people would
like/need all that support. ACT offer services such as helping with
performance, porting from Ada 83 etc. I also don't need help with Ada - I've
been using it for years.
For the project I am on at the moment all that support is just not required.
I would like just to buy a compiler, if I find bugs I would like to be able
to report them. If a fix exists I would like to take that fix. I also don't
need a support infrastructure to support 10 different people.
I agree about Microsoft, oh you've found a bug, if you just buy the next
version its fixed (several other things broken of course). I'm not
suggesting it should be the price of an C++ compiler, just that the support
costs have some sort of sliding scale depending on the number of users and
the support required. As I'm from the UK I know that British Aerospace use
the product, thats great and I sure they find the support and costs fine.
Indeed the support that is offered looks very impressive.

Of course its still possible the end customer will sting for the cost as
they are interested in the long term future of all the rest of the legacy
code and what they might do in a few years when they want to upgrade the
hardware, but thats not the issue here.

Rob