Re: Commercial/closed source development in Ada?

[Tero Koskinen <tero.koskinen@iki.fi>]

23.5.2014 20:40, Niklas Holsti wrote:
> On 14-05-23 19:45 , droiddermo@gmail.com wrote:
>> I'm a single developer. As far as I understand there is no free Ada
>> compiler that allows me to develop free or commercial closed source
>> applications. What options do I have? What option is the cheapest
>> one? What is the best choice for a single developer in your
>> opinion?
...
> The least expensive non-GNAT Ada compiler that I know is Janus/Ada
> from RR Software. I evaluated it some years ago; at that time, it was
> Windows-only and had some limitations that prevented it from
> compiling all of my application. If you design your applications
> keeping in mind the limitations of Janus/Ada, I think it would work
> well for you. In the small comparison I made, Janus/Ada generated
> code that was quite comparable in size and speed to the code from
> GNAT.

Another vote for Janus/Ada. Most (all?, excluding AVR things) of my code
compiles with Janus/Ada, so it is possible to overcome the limitations
(and bugs) with reasonable effort. And the price (~$200..$500) is
affortable for a single developer.

Probably the biggest limitation is missing Ada 20xx support. In
addition, there are some nasty bugs which prevent you from doing
some things (don't ask for details, I have happily lost the track
what is fixed and what isn't in the latest version of Janus/Ada ;) ).

RR Software (Randy) also does lot of other related Ada (standardization)
work, so sometimes it is frustratingly slow to get some specific bug fixed.

Yours,
  Tero

PS. Sometimes you see clearly the age of Janus/Ada. For example,
in 2009 I got my Janus/Ada version delivered on *floppies*. Later
versions have been available via Internet luckily.