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From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: 'cheap Ada compilers', was Re: GNAT 3.03 for OS/2
Date: 1996/03/28
Message-ID: <dewar.828029506@schonberg>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 144704107
references: <4jdcev$7gc@news2.delphi.com>
organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-03-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


tmoran said

"  Perhaps that's standard in your experience, but it's way high in
my world.  I'm quite surprised that some folks feel the battle for
'cheap Ada compilers' has been won when the compiler is free (but
updates cost $1200/year).  Must be different accounting systems."

I guess there is some considerable confusion here. New versions of
GNAT are released frequently, for example, the most recent release
of the OS/2 version was about two months ago. All updates to
GNAT are available free of charge. 

The $1200/year is for commercial level support, it is not a payment
for updates! Most people looking for a free or very cheap Ada compiler,
are not looking for commercial support, and one of the nice things
about the free software model is that it can accomodoate both extremes
(people who want something free to work with informally, and people
who want a tool supporting serious development and can afford what
that costs).

But to repeat again, all updates to GNAT are publically released,
and ACT is committed to continuing availability of versions that
it supports.