Re: Incorporating 9X into Ada courses

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

>Compiler problems have plagued Ada since at least 1984, when our group
>used to measure compile time in fractions of a day. We used the now 
>infamous ALS on a VAX 780. But as Paulkovich points out in the May/June
>Ada Letters, C/C++ compilers will always be smaller and cheaper because 
>they do so much less.

   I have not seen Paulkovich's article, but I must disagree, having used
many Ada compilers and many C/C++ compilers.  The current C/C++ compiler
systems probably offer more capability than any Ada system.  Not only do
they have better optimizations and compile speeds, but in areas like
type checking across modules, which Ada does naturally, most compilers
now also do (assuming you use #include files with procedural declaration).
Things Ada also do naturally (like tasking) are more than amply handled
with a variety of C/C++ object libraries that allows people to pick and
choose the tasking style they want, instead of one fixed approach blasted
into the language.
    Recently, C/C++ compilers have been including library browsers and
other neat CASE features, all for the same price.  And the interfaces to
most C/C++ compilers, especially unders Windows, are more user friendly
than the Ada compilers.

    The reason that Ada compilers cost more is simply because the Ada
compiler vendors have a captive market and can charge more simply because
there is no competition for them.  The Ada Mandate is a gross market
distortion that allows these inflated prices to continue.  Remove the
Mandate and two things will happen: first, the Ada vendors will have to
drastically lower their prices to be competitive with the C/C++ vendors.
Second, since the vendors are used to competition within the defense
world, between competition with C/C++ vendors and loss of sales to DoD
projects now using C/C++, most of the vendors will go out of the Ada
business.

    The vendors have used every excuse in the book to explain away the
fact why their prices are so high compared to industry standards, except
for the reason that neither Ada nor their compilers are competitive.
Just look how people are spending their own money.

Greg Aharonian
-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178