From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4eb65fab6deaa097 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: Lack of Mature Tools (was: Lockheed Martin, Green Hills, etc.) Date: 2000/04/26 Message-ID: <8e5hr4$imt$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 615712046 References: <4eaJ4.23498$hh2.538870@news.flash.net> <8d4lpa$ffu$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8d531v$vcr$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8d57mo$4d9@chronicle.concentric.net> <390472E9.E0A17BC6@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x35.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed Apr 26 01:47:20 2000 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 2000-04-26T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <390472E9.E0A17BC6@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com>, > Wes Groleau wrote: > The page cited mentions defects in both GNAT and Aonix. In > th interest of fairness: this project (NABK) also found a > serious defect in code generation for protected calls in Apex. > (However, Rational found the product the same time NABK did, > so a patch was available within two days.) Actually, as far as I can tell, this project did not make use of the commercial version of GNAT, but used some unsupported public version obtained somewhere from the net (and certainly not from Ada Core Technologies). Yes, among the technologies mentioned on the slides, it mentions that GNAT is the most stable, but still this is NOT the commercial version of GNAT. In fact we can't even be sure that it is the same bits that we originally placed there. The advantage of freely available software on the net is precisely that, it is freely available, but the downside is you can never be sure exactly what you are getting. Actually we can't even be sure there were any defects in any of the compilers. Our experience is that frequently people think there are problems in GNAT, and instead it turns out to be problems in their understanding of Ada 95, or unexpected portability errors. For example, users have many times complained that GNAT gets Natural'Size wrong (everyone knows it should be 32 right :-). Of course there may have very well been real bugs, but it's hard to tell. Given that they had no support for the use of GNAT, it is not clear to whom they could turn to understand what they observed. This is perhaps a good opportunity to remind people that although the widely available public version of GNAT is very useful for student and research use, if you are evaluating GNAT for use in a commercial project, and particularly if you are evaluating it in comparison with other commercial Ada compilers, then it is advisable to contact Ada Core Technologies. Like any other commercial Ada vendor, we can provide evaluation copies of the latest version of our technology, GNAT Professional, and you can then evaluate this with our support and help. For further information, contact sales@gnat.com or sales@act-europe.fr. This is not just a matter of "the interests of fairness", but in our experience a huge time saver. Support is particularly useful when you are first encountering a new technology! I apologize if this is a bit too commercial of a message, but in the case of GNAT, people often do not have a clear understanding of the relationship of the public version and the commercial version of GNAT. Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.