Re: Government Policy on Ada Acquisitions

[bishopm@source.asset.com (Michael M. Bishop)]

In article <aetechca.3.000FE9D9@powergrid.electriciti.com>,
Jim Dorman <aetechca@powergrid.electriciti.com> wrote:
[...snip...]
>The government terminated the Ada9X User/Implementer projects for 
>commercial companies in order to fund the development of a free 
>non-validated compiler (GNAT) for the Free Software Foundation, an 
>organization which blatantly espouses the concept that 
>intellectual property created by others should be free to the 
>public if it happens to be software? I hate to sling terms around, 
>but truly, truly, this is socialism at its quintessence.

It should be mentioned here that there are free GNU C and C++ compilers
available, also. This is one of the reasons that GNAT was developed.
Many people will choose C or C++ over Ada for development purposes
because they can get free compilers. One of the purposes of GNAT is to
get quick, early exposure for Ada 9X. Since GNAT is free, people will
probably be more likely to try it out. If they like what they see, they
might be motivated to buy a validated compiler system for use on
projects, since GNAT is a non-validated compiler (actually, a
translator). The main reason for projects like GNAT is to try to
generate a larger market for Ada so more vendors will get involved.
So, these guys (DISA, etc.) have capitalism in mind. Don't throw words
like "socialism" around in an attempt to alarm people. I believe that
the vast majority of c.l.a. readers aren't going to fall for that.
-- 
| Mike Bishop              | The opinions expressed here reflect    |
| bishopm@source.asset.com | those of this station, its management, |
| Member: Team Ada         | and the entire world.                  |