Re: GNAT Support Costs

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

I didn't realise you could "buy" the public version - what does that
actually mean?

Yes I've just discovered the Linux team and that has alievated some of my
worries. I have to admit when a couple of years ago I found a bug in
Sequential_Io (or Direct_Io) for Gnat and I sent back ACT a fix. I was
impressed with the response I had from them even when I was using the public
version.
I guess its just the warm feeling that you have knowing that a product is
supported, but partly from my experience and what you say maybe the 'risk'
of not having a product that is officially supported will not be too bad.
I'm afraid I still believe that ACT have priced themselves out of a certain
slice of the market, but I'm no business man and its not my company.

Rob

Laurent Guerby <guerby@acm.org> wrote in message
news:867lgtm6gz.fsf@ppp-162-235.villette.club-internet.fr...
> "Rob Kirkbride" <rob@rk-comp.demon.co.uk> writes:
> > [...] 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. [...]
>
> Hi Rob, I must admit I still fail to see why the public version of
> GNAT doesn't meet your needs here. You pay $0 (or $x if you get it
> from a cheap byte CD), you have an email to report bugs too, you'll
> get fixes with the next public version (that you can buy too), and if
> you're on Linux you have a dedicated team that is able to produce
> Linux related fixes (also with an email). If you're stuck with a
> problem, it's probable some experimented GNAT user (or customer) will
> propose a workaround on mailing lists/newgroups.
>
> If it's the $0 tag or having to pay to some company that doesn't
> improves GNAT directly that is a moral problem, you can always
> write a check to the FSF or to ACT (I don't know if they have a
> special fund for this).
>
> --LG