From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_20 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 10 Dec 92 18:03:18 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!convex!spray@uunet.uu.net (Rob Spray) Subject: Re: Open Systems closed to Ada? Message-ID: List-Id: In <1992Dec9.205207.4722@ennews.eas.asu.edu> koehnema@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Harry Koehnemann) writes: >The context of the question was "What did C have going for it in the >past that makes it popular today". The first I became aware of "cheap" >Ada compilers was ~1989 with Meridians $150 compiler for the PC (site >licenses too). However, 1989 isn't soon enough to see Ada intergrated >into CS programs (although that is now starting to happen) or to produce >the same volume of Ada programmers we currently see available for C. >If cheap compilers came out earlier, then maybe I'm wrong. They were there, you just had to hustle! In 1985, I got a deep discount on a Verdix compiler for Southern Methodist University's VAX running 4.2bsd. It wasn't advertised, but a few phone calls made it happen. It was good too. My graduate students were using the debugger to debug tasking programs based solely on info they gleened from the man pages (I had the only set of manuals, so they wouldn't go for a walk.) --Rob spray@convex.com --former Visiting Industrial Professor, SMU Disclaimer: my present employer uses Verdix technology, but I had no relation with Verdix other than as a happy academic customer in 1985.