Re: Thoughts on AdaCore maintaining GCC-incompatible GNAT sources

["Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr>]

Le Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:37:01 +0100, Ludovic Brenta  
<ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> a écrit:

Ludovic, forgive me, I guess you will not enjoy this reply.

> <long and interesting rant deleted>
>
> I agree with your frustration with the fact that AdaCore keeps some of
> their source repositories, notably GNAT and ASIS, secret. This is
> especially frustrating when you try to build GPS from the trunk, which
> usually requires a recent (but secret) version of GNAT.
There are two GNAT, you are talking like there was only one.

> This frustration is harmful for AdaCore, too, since it has already
> discouraged valuable input and contributions (e.g. bug reports from
> Dmitry); in fact it has already caused some people to dismiss GNAT as
> a "closed" compiler altogether[1].
Dismissed ? And they switched to what ? They build there own compiler ? Or  
what else ?

> [1] http://www.libroscope.org/Benchmark-23-logiciels-libres
This page is french ;) Any way, the topic: it says : “GNAT Pro : 0% libre”  
and seems to complain about it.
GNAT Pro ? What a joke, where did they see GNAT Pro was ever promoted as  
libre ? Is GNAT Pro provided on libre.adacore.com ? The answer is No. On  
libre.adacore.com, you get GNAT GPL, GNAT Pro was never promoted as libre,  
is another product which is available on another area of the site.

(I leaved this page right after I've seen this line, because it appears it  
is not honest)

> But I fear only a large paying customer could persuade AdaCore to
> publish their sources more frequently and no large paying customer is
> interested in that.

Just like the baker… he more enjoy to give his products to paying clients  
(or else how the whole economy works is to be updated; but no-body care…  
especially if they just want get “this” and “that” for nothing).

And why not promote some funding from other users ? Let say 1200 users of  
the GPL version, each funding $10 e year (relatively accessible), this  
will reach the level of pricing for GNAT Pro on Windows. Try to negotiate  
with AdaCore for a special kind of contract on this basis. Is that an  
valid option ? This would not offer a full-support GNAT obviously, but  
this may help to get more (very probably).

> Having said that, I think it should be possible to move forward
> nevertheless. I would like it if Debian could ship a JGNAT package for
> example :)
>
> --
> Ludovic Brenta.

Above all, remember what you do yourself is always 100% libre for yourself  
(kidding)

-- 
Si les chats miaulent et font autant de vocalises bizarres, c’est pas pour  
les chiens.

“I am fluent in ASCII” [Warren 2010]