Re: Ada -- a popular language?

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

Dave Smith writes:

 "Ahem! The GPL states that:

  This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
  proprietary programs.
 
  But the real point is that many business` do not like using shareware,
  pd software, copyleft software. Yes I know we can get
  support from companies
  like Cygnus, I agree that GNAT is a very high quality compiler, but it
  still does not get accepted by every company."

Robert replies

The reference to the GPL is confused here. The restriction is only
against trying to make (for example) GNAT itself proprietary, or
incorporating GNAT itself into a proprietary compiler system. For
example, some company wanting to put the GNAT front end together
with a proprietary back end (several companies have been interested
in trying to do that) would likely run afoul of the GPL.

BUT! If you want to use GNAT (for example) to generate a proprietary
program, no problem at all -- lots of companies are doing this.

As for shareware/pd/copyleft, it is obfuscation to link these together
that way, there is really not much connection.

The point of free software is not its price, which may or may not be
zero (there is nothing to stop anyone from selling free software,
and it is done all the time, e.g. Linux from Redhat). The issue in
free software is the availability of sources, and the freedom to
modify and redistribute.

It is often the case that public domain software, shareware, freeware
etc is as far from being free software as any Microsoft product. I
personally stay away from unsupported software of any kind, but that's
the kind of decision people have to make for themselves in their own
contexts.

As for the issue of whether GNAT gets accepted by every company, there are
many reasons why a given software product may or may not be accepted. It
is certainly true that there are cases where management confuses free
software and freeware, and not surprisingly as a result of this confusion
is suspicious of GNAT. As I mention above, I avoid freeware type stuff
that is unsupported completely and I syumpathize with the reaction.

However, we find many companies that start with this attitude change it
when they understand the facts, and many large companies *are* using
GNAT today

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies.