Re: verdix kisses off Ada

[cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland.]

Michael Feldman (mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu) wrote:
: In article <9575@verdix.verdix.com> brucej@verdix.com (Bruce Jones) writes:
: >In article <1993May21.162150.20535@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Mich
ael Feldman) writes:
: >>A dollar can only be spent once. If the resources aren't there to build big
ger
: >>Ada markets, how are they available to build C/C++ compilers? 
: >
: >Mike, its not just a question of dollars, the reason is that the resources 
: >are different.  The resources needed to build a C/C++ compiler is a team 
: >of highly skilled compiler engineers.  Verdix has such a team.  You can't
: >just go buy these people, you have to build the team slowly over time.  

: Oh, that's certainly true. But each person-hour can be spent only once.
: Each hour invested in building a C or C++ compiler is one that's _not_
: spent developing Ada stuff whose performance and reliability is such that
: people who are spending their own money will buy it.

Each person-hour can only be spent once, but that one hour can be reused.
What I mean by this is that the same principles go into building a compiler
for both Ada and C++.  (Other languages could also be included, but this
is a sufficiently large group to demonstrate my point.)

As demonstrated by the GNAT project, even if the frontend of a compiler is
written from scratch, the same backend(s) can be used.  These backends
include code-generators, optimizers, and debuggers.  All of DEC's compiled
languages on VAX/VMS use the same debugger.  It is even rumored (because
I haven't had sufficient confirmation) that all of these languages use the
same code-generators and optimizers.

I've heard that since C++ has added exceptions, GNU (not the GNAT team) is
in the process of rewriting the C++ compiler backend to support this.  The
work of the GNAT team may or may not be rolled back into the backend by
GNU.  (I'd appreciate hearing about this from a well informed source.  Is
the co-director of GNAT still listening?)

It takes skilled persons to write commercial compilers, but they don't have
to write code that is used for just one language/project.  This is the point
of reuse.

Nevertheless, Verdix may end up selling their C++ compiler for a lower price
than their Ada compiler.  It may be as simple (is anything in economics
simple :-) ?) as being able to spread the development costs over a larger
expected sales volume.

			-=:[ VAL ]:=-
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