Re: What exactly is the licensing situation with GNAT?

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

13.11.2014 3:54, Hubert wrote:
>> Unfortunately, if it is like most of David's other software, it won't
>> work
>> on other Ada compilers. (That is a common problem, not really picking on
>> David here, a lot of supposedly Ada software is really GNAT software.)
>> That
>> locks you into GNAT, and as you note, the costs for getting regular
>> support
>> for GNAT are not really affordable.
> 
> Let's face it: Gnat is the only compiler out there that has any chance
> of making it to mainstream market. I contacted the other two vendors of
> Ada compilers (forgot the names, I refer to them internally as the green
> and the silver/blue website). they dont have prices on their sites, have
> cool pics of fighter jets and only support up to Ada 95. I wanted to ask
> for prices, evaluation version and I didn't even get a response, so I
> guess unless you have "IBM" or "Pentagon" in your email domain, they
> don't even read your email.
...
> Ok, One was GreenHills and the other was Atego, I looked them up

I have managed to contact Atego sales people in Europe about
a year ago. But I admit, it was somewhat hard to do. I had to
pester HR persons (via email) to find me a sales guy who was
answering to his emails.

But in the end, I found two (one of them was vice-president of
sales department iirc), plus one software engineer.

I was even able to get a quote from them for ObjectAda (2005 version).

Otherwise their price was "ok", but
1) They license their compiler only for a year at time. After year
is over, you need to renew the license or you cannot use the compiler
anymore.
2) They only deal with other companies. They don't have procedures
to sell (or give) compilers to invidual people.

Also, I don't know has the situation changed after the latest merger.

Yours,
 Tero