Help finding Ada tools

Help finding Ada tools

[Beth Walker]

My group is gearing up for a new development.  Several things are still up
in the air (OS, programming language).  What we go with will largely depend
on the availability of tools.  If we can't come up with an Ada compiler and
GUI builder, the management is going to default to C, as there are several
tools available.

I would like pointers to good Ada compilers and GUI builders for the
following Operating sytems/environments (in order of preference).  The Ada
implementation must support tasking (ActivAda does not have tasking with
Win32s).

   Microsoft Windows 3.1
   OS/2
   Unix

Thanks.

Re: Help finding Ada tools

[Bill Hart @ignite]

In <bwalker-220295144001@dukat.nosc.mil> bwalker@nosc.mil (Beth Walker) writes:

>My group is gearing up for a new development.  Several things are still up
>in the air (OS, programming language).  What we go with will largely depend
>on the availability of tools.  If we can't come up with an Ada compiler and
>GUI builder, the management is going to default to C, as there are several
>tools available.

>I would like pointers to good Ada compilers and GUI builders for the
>following Operating sytems/environments (in order of preference).  The Ada
>implementation must support tasking (ActivAda does not have tasking with
>Win32s).

--> I hate to sound irreverent - but how does C support tasking under
--> Win32s?  Perhaps I don't know C well enough and there exists a
--> portable, tasking C compiler for...

>   Microsoft Windows 3.1
>   OS/2
>   Unix

>Thanks.

--> I guess after seeing this type of mislogic used to justify C for
--> so many projects (I have been with Alsys since 1987) I never cease
--> to be amazed at the dual standards applied to Ada vs. any other
--> language.  Obviously you are sympathetic to Ada since you posted
--> the message.  Give me a call at (619) 457-2700 ext. 123 and I'll
--> be happy to give you some ideas on how to cut through the smoke-
--> screen...regardless of who's Ada compiler you end up buying.

--> Bill Hart
--> Thomson Software Products (formerly Alsys)
--> hart@alsys.com

Re: Help finding Ada tools

[Bob Kitzberger]

Beth Walker (bwalker@nosc.mil) wrote:

: If we can't come up with an Ada compiler and
: GUI builder, the management is going to default to C, as there are several
: tools available.
[...]
: The Ada
: implementation must support tasking (ActivAda does not have tasking with
: Win32s).

Does the C toolset have to support tasking?   I'm only half kidding here --
if you would reject Activada for not supporting tasking with Win32s
(and I'm certainly not in a position to affirm whether it does or not)
why would you accept C if it doesn't support tasking at all?

--
Bob Kitzberger	        +1 (916) 274-3075	        rlk@rational.com
Rational Software Corp., 10565 Brunswick Rd. #11, Grass Valley, CA 95945
  "...the solution to the problem is usually to pee on it"  -- Dave Barry

Re: Help finding Ada tools

[Beth Walker]

Bob Kitzberger wrote:

> >The Ada
> >implementation must support tasking (ActivAda does not have tasking with
> >Win32s).
> 
> --> I hate to sound irreverent - but how does C support tasking under
> --> Win32s?  Perhaps I don't know C well enough and there exists a
> --> portable, tasking C compiler for...
> 
In article <D4IKKB.JBz@thomsoft.com>, bhart@alsys.com (Bill Hart @ignite)
replies:
> --> I guess after seeing this type of mislogic used to justify C for
> --> so many projects (I have been with Alsys since 1987) I never cease
> --> to be amazed at the dual standards applied to Ada vs. any other
> --> language.  


Yes -- I agree that the argument "if the Ada doesn't have tasking, we will
use C" doesn't make sense from a purely language point of view.  That's
because its more of an effort/people issue than it is a language issue.  I
didn't really provide all the pros and cons we are discussing, but to give
you a few:

We are reengineering a program.  It is currently written in C.  There is
little argument that the code will need to be essentially re-written, due
to lots of other reasons (one being that the current program was a
prototype, and the new one is to be the production version).  

The programming staff is split between Ada and C because half of them are
used to C and half are used to Ada.  The C half are the ones that worked on
the original program.  We are on a tight schedule, and they are concerned
about the time required for them to come up to speed with Ada.

Tasking is one thing that Ada has that C doesn't, and the problem being
solved is very task-oriented.  The strong typing is another advantage of
Ada.  However, the C staff feels that they can check out their code using
lint or some other type of pre-processor, etc. so they don't feel that the
strong typing buys them enough to go to the effort of learning Ada.  The
tasking argument did.  

There are lots of other issues which complicate the entire selection
process, which I won't go into.

Re: Help finding Ada tools

[Beth Walker]

I wanted to thank the folks that replied to my post, both here and via
email.  If there is sufficient interest, I can post a summary.