Re: GNAT 3.03 for OS/2

[dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

I have a few complaints about the tough situation with OS/2 and GNAT.  My
impression is that ACT is foot-dragging in order for IBM to be persuaded
to fund development of GNAT for OS/2 and AIX.  I don't blame ACT for
giving priority to paying customers.  But I do blame them for not
effectively promoting the use of GNAT to the bulk of professional OS/2
developers.

  We are not foot dragging at all. We estimate the probability of IBM
  funding development of GNAT for OS/2 (AIX is another matter entirely)
  to be zero. We keep the OS/2 version alive really only because I use
  it, and historically it was the version required by the DoD contract.
  A company spends its promotional energy where it thinks results will
  be obtained. We have very limited resources.

In June of '95, I attempted to have GNAT distributed on the CD-ROM's with
the IBM Developer Connection for OS/2.  I contacted the people at IBM and
hooked them up with Robert Dewar who officially took over from there.
IBM was very interested in getting GNAT distributed on their CD's and
even contacted me several more times until September.  IBM wants to see
an OS/2 environment that can be used for either PowerPC or Intel
machines.  I suggested GNAT Ada 95 to them.

  Actually we persued this, but mutually agreed that we could not make the
  very tight release schedule for some particular version of the IBM
  Developer Connection CD ROM. We also agreed that they would contact
  us again for the subsequent release. We have not heard a thing from
  them. Yes I suppose we could go and track them down, but frankly
  it is not clear that IBM is really energetically promoting OS/2 at
  this stage themselves!

There was one catch: the owner of the copyrights to GNAT had to sign a
standard release form.  At that time, the copyrights were held by several
University entities.

  This is uninformed speculation. This was not, and has never been a problem!

Now how tough is it for ACT to sign the IBM forms and send a recent copy
of GNAT for OS/2 to the Developer Connection staff?  In my opinion,
Robert Dewar is being too picky by holding-off on the OS/2 releases.  The
subscribers to IBM DEVCON are exactly the people to reach in order to
promote Ada 95 for OS/2 and AIX.  If ACT really wanted OS/2 and AIX
customers other than IBM, then ACT would've moved by now to access the
subscribers of DEVCON.

  Not tough at all. If IBM gets in touch with us as they promised to do,
  we will be glad to cooperate with them. We are not "holding off" on
  the OS/2 releases, it is just that the OS/2 release is highly non-standard,
  requires a lot of special fiddling each time, and is rather low on the
  priority list, so it takes a while to get around to it. We are hoping
  to get a 3.04 out in the forseeable future, but we can't promise anything.
  Please don't assume that we are deliberately holding back OS/2 releases,
  far from it! Since I use no other version, I would certainly be as happy
  as anyone to have my version properly sychronized with the official release.

I'm a non-paying customer of ACT and I must admit I'm unable to
effectively do anything more except complain in order to get GNAT into
the hands of OS/2 developers.

  Actually, you could perfectly well take on the packaging up of new releases
  if you want to, no one has a monopoly on this. Many of the unsupported ports
  are maintained by volunteers for that matter. You could also send the stuff
  off to IBM for that matter. Remember that we do not own the copyright
  on GNAT any more than you do, so it is no easier for us to deal with
  the copyright release than it would be for you (the copyright is assigned
  to the FSF).

  One thing to understand is that are first priority is to get releases to
  our customers. Sometimes people are under the false impression that the
  GPL requires us to make general releases. It does not, the GPL only says
  that if we release, we have to release with sources. 

  ACT chooses to make public binary versions availale of all the ports we
  can, but these public releases are not our highest priority item, and
  this is especially true for ports in which there is very little
  commercial interest.

  We will certainly try to make an OS/2 3.04 as soon as possible, but we
  cannot promise any definite time table.

  Incidentally, when we use the term customer, like any other business, we
  mean paying customers. The two kinds of GNAT users who catch our
  attention are commercial customers, and those who contribute to the
  GNAT effort by volunteer work. We are happy that many others can make
  good use of GNAT, but you have to remember that the continued development
  and improvement of GNAT depends on giving our customers good service!

  Finally, John, I appreciate you making the contact with IBM for the
  developers connection. Too bad that the time scale was just too tight
  when IBM first made contact. It is a pity that IBM has not followed
  up on sending us the material for a future release.