Re: Is Apex dead as an environment for Ada & Java?

["Steven Hovater" <nh-ho@mediaone.net>]

Hi Jim

Hmm. We routinely (in Rational) use the multiple-architecture feature of
Apex, as we support five (Solaris, HP-UX, Irix, Digital Unix, Aix) flavors
of Unix.

A user can have an execution file in their $HOME/.Rational directory, which
lists
the machine kind and names. Then, suppose I'm on a Solaris system and
need to compile code on HP-UX. Rather than start up another Apex session,
I can compile in the HP view from Solaris, which starts a command server on
the first HP
machine in my execution file. For all intents and purposes, I'm on Solaris,
but compiling with Apex over on an HP. We can check-in/out/compile debug,
on any flavor Unix. The main caveat is that the machines must have Apex
(of the same version) installed and visible from all participating machines.
Semantic browsing/navigation works across the different platforms, as well.
(That is, the Diana is machine independent, but compiler-version dependent.
Hence the comment about the identical versions..)

This is being used successfully at one of my customer sites.

Likewise, another feature that's related to this is the ability to take a
compilation
and spread it across several machines. (Given Ada rules, your milage may
vary on this feature.)

Cheers,
Steve (just another Rational tech rep...)
--
Steven Hovater
svh@rational.com
Software Engineering Consultant
Phone/fax:781-676-2565/2500
Rational Software
Pager: 888-906-2209
83 Hartwell Ave, Lexington, MA
Amateur radio: AA1YH



jim_snead <basswoodNObaSPAM@my-deja.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:000b8d9b.a5ff48ae@usw-ex0102-016.remarq.com...
> In article <3846CB5D.F1F77C21@hso.link.com>, "Samuel T. Harris"
> <sam_harris@hso.link.com> wrote:
> > jim_snead wrote:
> > > It sounds as if the Apex environment is locked into a single host
> > > environment. So if you go to source code that was set up with a
> > > particular operating system, you cannot modify anything
> > > with another environment (say Solaris versus AIX). This is
> > > extremely contrary to portable Ada or Java development. In many
> > > instances one set of code could work for many different
> > > environments.
> > I believe you have mis-read Andreas Winckler. I think Andreas
> > was refering to the RCI (Remote Compilation Integrator) facility.
> > This facility has two part to it. The first is the customization
> > of a very general Ada semantic compiler. This compiler does not
> > produce any object code, but it does produce the semantic trees
> > which drive the ASIS stuff as well as the smart editor. The second
> > part of an RCI is the collection of scripts necessary to control
> > the actual target compiler. RCI customizations provide extra
> > "compiler models" as Andreas put it. This allows a project which
> > has to support several compilers to use the single Apex development
> > environment for all of them. This does not mean Apex only runs
> > on a single environment.
>
> Does this mean that you can set up a source code area that
> is compilable to a platform-neutral format such as Java Byte Codes,
> and then allow any host to do check-ins and check-outs and building
> of semantic trees.  The RCI could then be used as a generic
> compilation model to be used across many platforms.
>
> Thanks, the RCI seems a bit complex but is probably the
> missing piece that explains the Apex approach.
>
>
>
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