Re: GNAT GPL is not shareware

[Mark Carroll <mtbc@bcs.org>]

Pascal Obry <pascal@obry.net> writes:

> Le mardi 06 janvier 2015 à 17:59 -0800, Hubert a écrit : 
>> I should maybe say that I am one of these people who are looking into 
>> Ada. The reason is that I realize that the language has much more to 
>> offer than C++ and it seems programs are more stable due to the lack of 
>> pointer juggling.
>> However, I am reluctant to commit more than some spare time to it and 
>> writing more than some stand alone tools because from my point it has an 
>> uncertain future.
>
> This is just plain wrong. How can Ada have an uncertain future where all
> the most challenged projects in the world are using it more and more and
> there is two Open Source compilers, one GPL from AdaCore and non GPL
> from FSF integrated into the GCC project.

I suppose it depends to what extent AdaCore is a single point of
failure. Does the FSF version get much active development that isn't
hand-me-downs of AdaCore's paid work? I don't mind relying on a free
compiler if there's an associated development community already working
on it directly, as with other languages like Haskell where commercial
companies still have the option of privately contracting with
consultants who otherwise work on the free compiler anyway.

-- Mark