Re: Early availability of cheap Ada compilers (Was: Re=Fun_with_History why_wasnt_Ada83_object_oriented)

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Jacob Sparre Andersen" <sparre@nbi.dk> wrote in message 
news:87d38ohf9g.fsf_-_@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk...
> Randy Brukardt wrote:
>
>> Subset versions of Janus/Ada were introduced in 1981, and on the IBM
>> PC in 1982. There were other companies, too. All of these compilers
>> were competitively priced for the time (several hundred dollars) --
>> the dirt cheap compilers (in more ways than one) came later (including
>> versions of Janus/Ada for $99; indeed, that compiler is *still* in our
>> catelog at $129).
>
> Why was it that I couldn't find it in 1993, when I was actually looking
> for an Ada compiler?
>
> I suppose I wasn't looking in the right place.  But where was the right
> place to look back then?

I don't know. I can't remember how we ever could have found anything prior 
to AltaVista. (I'm not going to give Google credit for something that they 
didn't invent...:-).

Advertising was hit-or-miss. (And our budget was $0 by 1993.) Lists of 
validated compilers and the like helped, but you had to know about the AdaIC 
in order to get that information. Trade shows like SIGAda were a good place 
to find out things, but you had to know about them. And so on...

                      Randy.