Re: AdaZ

[bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson)]

In article <62901205205926.0004238973NC3EM@mcimail.com> 0004238973@MCIMAIL.COM (Frank Pappas) writes:
>  In response to some recent questions about Merdian's AdaZ, it's for
>real. If any PC Ada compiler deserves to be called ``Turbo'' Ada, its
>AdaZ. It's not perfect.  There's a few minor things that I think need
>fixing, but nothing that would prevent me from strongly recommending
>it. And I can say this after having reviewed every PC Ada Compiler on
>the market. (If you read the review I wrote for PC Week, AdaZ is what
>Merdian was originally calling Reach.)

The saleswoman actually told me that if I was familiar with Turbo Pascal,
then I would be comfortable with AdaZ.  She obviously never saw Turbo
Pascal.  This may be a good Ada compiler, but it sure is several generations
behind Borland/Microsoft/JPL/others in support environments.

<what you get for $149 details removed>

>If that's not enough, you get Meridian's Ada compilation environment
>(ACE). This is an editor that provides:
<details removed>

If any of you have used (as I do) the shareware blackbeard editor, then you'll
recognize and be comfortable with ACE. 

>As to the code, it's good enough for anyone that wants to develop
>real mode DOS applications.

The "hello world" generates an .exe of about 42K.  The manual gives hints
at how this can be reduced.  The compiler et al takes up about 5Mb of
space and needs a few 100K of disk space for swapping.  I only gave it about
a 100K of disk space, and ACE reported "out of memory" not "out of disk
space".  The only other glitch I've noticed is the amake program doesn't
like the MS-DOS ctrl-z file termination indicator for text files.  It calls
it an unknown keyword - which is confusing since the ctrl-z is generally
nonprintable: Unknown keyword "" (I piped the output to 4dos list and
it showed the ctrl-z graphic arrow).

I ran the Dinning Philosophers portable example provided here on usenet and
it prints the opening positions, then did nothing.  I'm not an Ada guru
but I suspect the compiler configuration I used was incorrect, vice anything
wrong with AdaZ.

>  If you know someone who needs an Ada compiler for training purposes
>or who just wants to find out what this A-D-A language is all about,
>recommend AdaZ to them. This compiler will make a favorable first
>impression on new Ada users, and that's important!

If I were a command-line junkie, I might agree.  While Borland and Microsoft
environments are not the best editors, the environments can still 
significantly boost the productivity of the programmer - especially the
new programmer (in any language).  Meridian's ACE reminds me of the 
environments I used during the days of micros using CP/M.  

>  I think Meridian deserves lots of credit for introducing AdaZ at
>such a reasonable price. Obviously there's something in it for them.
>I'm sure they're trying to build a customer base that will eventually
>move up to their 286 version. Just the same, this is something that
>should help make Ada much more widely available and understood. Maybe
>if Merdian gets a big enough response, the price will stay at $149.

I bought AdaZ because I needed to get to know Ada better than I do now, so
to Meridian, thanks for the low price.  But if you think I'm going to use
this to develop with (my own stuff, or utilities, etc) then I think we've
overrated the role of the compiler in the development process.

* Bruce Benson                   + Internet  - bwb@sei.cmu.edu +       +
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