Re: "Open Core" and the Ada Community

[Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk>]

Florian Weimer wrote:

> The real problem is a lack of a diverse development community, and no
> interest on the side of the primary (or original) contributor/project
> steward to create a such a community (which is somewhat understandable
> because it as a lot of work).  Once there is an actual development
> community that brings value to the primary contributor, licensing
> matters less because power is shared in other ways.
>
> (With “development community” I mean people collaborating to improve
> the software itself, not merely using it.)

You are probably right about this.  If we can manage to get there with
GNAT (or another Ada compiler), I can't see how the specific choice of
Open Source licence will matter much, since there will be a real cost
(lost man-power) if one walls in the development.

But who has the spare time to learn enough to contribute to GNAT?  Or to
write an Ada compiler from scratch?

How large is GNAT?  I've been told that learning to find your way around
in a (specific) 2M SLOC Ada application takes about a year (full time).
How long time does it take to learn to find your way around in GNAT?

Greetings,

Jacob
-- 
"Banning open source would have immediate, broad, and
 strongly negative impacts on the ability of many sensitive
 and security-focused DOD groups to protect themselves
 against cyberattacks"                        -- Mitre Corp.