Re: Commercial/closed source development in Ada?

[Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid>]

On 14-05-23 19:45 , droiddermo@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm a single developer. As far as I understand there is no free Ada
> compiler that allows me to develop free or commercial closed source
> applications. What options do I have? What option is the cheapest
> one? What is the best choice for a single developer in your opinion?

The version of GNAT that comes from the FSF (Free Software Foundation)
lets you develop and sell closed-source, commercial SW. When I used to
develop such SW, as a single developer, I used the FSF-GNAT in Debian
and Ubuntu for Linux hosts, and the FSF-GNAT in MinGW (not MinGW-64,
which I did not try) for Windows hosts. They worked well enough for me,
but may not be quite as up to date with Ada 2012 as the GPL version of
GNAT from AdaCore. That was not a problem for me -- I am slow to take up
novelties.

(And thanks, as always, to Ludovic Brenta and the rest of the Debian Ada
team for their unselfish work to support Ada in Debian.)

The least expensive non-GNAT Ada compiler that I know is Janus/Ada from
RR Software. I evaluated it some years ago; at that time, it was
Windows-only and had some limitations that prevented it from compiling
all of my application. If you design your applications keeping in mind
the limitations of Janus/Ada, I think it would work well for you. In the
small comparison I made, Janus/Ada generated code that was quite
comparable in size and speed to the code from GNAT.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
      .      @       .