From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,df1a7f1c3c3bc77e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 08:15:04 -0500 Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 08:41:53 -0400 From: Jeffrey Creem User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (Windows/20070326) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: An Ada Advice Inquiry References: <463B7BBF.4080603@obry.net> <65gsg4-9si.ln1@newserver.thecreems.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.147.74.171 X-Trace: sv3-VpC4nWYav5rpsoP+YVxrLPth2g43yIOG6MMpGAr1mh9gBMUTuJ+o6mopxTARBWXMWpuE2i9wbA4cygN!h3mFr8/laUoBNiG9W4xBqWnzovYVLY5n+ArYU1O/+9OYY+KsiJbaKnPeIsxB41cDmVPx4QAAZeyc!8YUjlEi+DdShQlM3fqRjyA== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.34 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15571 Date: 2007-05-05T08:41:53-04:00 List-Id: Markus E Leypold wrote: > Last time I checked they were to expensive to develop an embedded > appliance with them (in small quantities) and then keep the compiler > around for 10 years for maintainance (which every sane customer will > reuqire). AFAIR they still have that minimum 5 seat clause (a bit much > for the 9 years of maintainance). > > > Regards -- Markus > > While I agree it is nice to keep maintenance around for that time, this is probably another example of the different bar people set when they use Ada. The US Gov't had/has this thing called JTA (Joint Technical Architecture) that lists a bunch of standards you sort of have to use. If you pick Ada, it had to be a certified compiler. If you pick C, it (basically) had to be the case that there were some {} in your code because that proved you were using C. In this case, we will tell people they should/must pay for 9 years of maintenance, which will be too expensive. So, the person will go off, select (as a contrived example) visual studio 6, not consider maintenance and end up with a product which will not be supported 2 years out. The whole maintenance thing is largely a sham. I've dealt with a lot of compiler (multi language) and OS vendors over the years. Sure in plenty of cases I've had bugs that they have solved...But in just about as many cases, I've either needed to find a workaround or use either the full source code or source code snippets to fix their problems for them and then send it back to them so it can appear in a future version. Just about the worst thing you can do if you really care about long term support is pick any tool that requires some automated method for license enforcement (dongle, flexlm, etc). 10 years out, you can pretty much bet that even if the vendor wanted to support you, they would no longer know how and you can end up with a dead tool. If I were spending money and micromanaging a development contractor, I'd be a lot more interested in making sure they pick a tool suite that will not fail 100% when the license server dies. Compiler bugs that pop up after 5 years of service almost certainly can be worked around...Node locked license servers..maybe not.