westley@mercury.uucp (Terry J. Westley) (01/12/91)
In article <9101081832.AA13711@chance.mitre.org> vecellio@CHANCE.MITRE.ORG (Gary Vecellio) writes: > >Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for >the Mac, AdaZ. At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is >right. > Is this a new product? I have Meridian's Ada compiler for the Mac which retails for around $2000 (two thousand). It comes with MPW and is not called AdaZ. Their new PC compiler is called AdaZ and has been introduced at a come-on price of $149. -- Terry J. Westley Arvin/Calspan Advanced Technology Center P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225 westley%planck.uucp@acsu.buffalo.edu
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) (01/13/91)
In article <1991Jan11.144517@magic.Berkeley.EDU> yow@magic.Berkeley.EDU (Billy Yow 283-4009) writes: >> Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for >> the Mac, AdaZ. At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is >> right > >The AdaZ product is for the PC. I don't believe there is an AdaZ >version for the Mac. Anyone else know? > Meridian has not announced an AdaZ equivalent for the Mac, but I have heard them say they intend to do something similar. They were recently allowing students and teachers to purchase their Mac AdaVantage, which is an MPW- based system (with MPW bundled) for $200. I'd recommend calling Claudia Coleman at Meridian (800-221-2522) to get a reading from her on what the current policy is. I have discussed the matter of the Mac system with them a number of times, over several years. At this point, they are not inclined to pull their system out from under MPW; their feeling seems to be that serious Mac programmers will have no trouble using MPW and that Ada is for serious Mac programmers. Clearly they aren't (yet) seeing the virtue of getting Ada into those schools that are heavy into Macs because they like the Mac user interface, which MPW "end-runs" to a large degree (although this is a religious matter we needn't debate here, please). If you think a double- clickable Mac Ada, not tied to MPW, would be a good idea, let Meridian know and help 'em understand what the potential customer base would be. There is _not one_ Ada system of this kind in existence: all Mac Ada's are either MPW-bound or A/UX-bound. Need this be so? Mike Feldman
loren@ural.Eng.Sun.COM (Loren L. Hart) (01/15/91)
In article <1991Jan11.144517@magic.Berkeley.EDU> yow@magic.Berkeley.EDU (Billy Yow 283-4009) writes: >> Does anyone have technical information on Maridian's Ada compiler for >> the Mac, AdaZ. At $149.00 (till the end of the month) the price is >> right > >The AdaZ product is for the PC. I don't believe there is an AdaZ >version for the Mac. Anyone else know? > I just talked to a salesman from meridian today. They are going to start selling their Mac-OS Compiler for the same $149.00 as of the first of February. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren L. Hart The Ada Ace Group, Inc loren@cup.portal.com P.O. Box 36195 San Jose, CA 95158 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren L. Hart The Ada Ace Group, Inc loren@cup.portal.com P.O. Box 36195 San Jose, CA 95158
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) (01/15/91)
In article <5917@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> loren@ural.Eng.Sun.COM (Loren L. Hart) writes: > >I just talked to a salesman from meridian today. They are going to start >selling their Mac-OS Compiler for the same $149.00 as of the first of February. > This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW system (MPW comes bundled, I believe). I'd rather see a real Mac application instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing. The compiler is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac. Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event. Mike Feldman --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Michael Feldman Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science The George Washington University Washington, DC 20052 202-994-5253 mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
saharbaugh%roo.dnet@WINNIE.BERKELEY.EDU (01/18/91)
On 15 Jan 91 Mike Feldman writes:
-This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW
-system (MPW comes bundled, I believe).
Yes, it did
-I'd rather see a real Mac application
-instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing.
Hmm, what is a "real Mac application". I quickly learned to like
the MPW. To me (a systems engineer) it is like having an easy-to-use
interface to a Unix command line system. I launch MPW then give
textual commands in a desktop window. I can enter comments, cut and
paste, scroll back and forth and repeat any command with a click and
an "enter", etc. If I want to know how to format a command line I pull down
Meridian's menu, make selections by clicking etc. and
Meridian builds the command
line piece-by-piece for me and explains what the command or option will do.
My personal preference is to then cut the command line from Meridian's
menu window to the MPW window. I'm not too demented(yet) to not
remember what the command and options do, so I use the "real-MAC"-like
feature as help and work out of the MPW window.
Also I use multifinder and bounce around windows and tools but
for large Ada source files I must turn multifinder off and just use MPW
because I only have 8MB of RAM(I can't believe I said only 8MB)
-The compiler
-is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac.
Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+
-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event.
So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it.
sam harbaugh saharbaugh%ROO.DNET@WINNIE.FIT.EDU
---------------------mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) (01/19/91)
In article <9101171940.AA06518@winnie.fit.edu> saharbaugh%roo.dnet@WINNIE.BERKELEY.EDU writes: >Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+ >-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event. >So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it. > Looking at Ada, as I almost always do, from a teacher's viewpoint, I am saying that I have (personally) no problem with MPW or with an MPW Ada; rather, I have a problem with imposing it on freshmen, especially in today's world of Turbo Pascal or Think Pascal (or their C equivalents). There is a time to stick students with all the complexities of a professional developer's interface, and a time not to. Their first semester is NOT the time. I have spoken to a number of educators recently, including my own GW colleagues, who believe that the lack of a development environment as fast and friendly as Borland's is REALLY hurting Ada in the world of education. AdaZ is on the right track; it'll do in a pinch. An MPW- embedded Ada will NOT do for beginners. I've tried it and from that perspective, I DON'T like it. Where is "Think Ada"? Our friends in the Ada vendor world have, as usual, created a self-fulfilling prophecy by assuming that there is no market for such a thing. Meridian has been very surprised by the 5000 or so copies of AdaZ they have sold since November. I'm glad for Meridian, and I'm glad for Ada, that the thing has sold so well. Perhaps this will send the right message that the Mac wouldn't be such a bad thing to try either. There are lots of good Mac programmers, especially around California, who could port an MPW-embedded compiler to the native system and make it beginner-friendly. Somehow we've GOT to debunk the myth that Ada is only for DoD professionals, but the Ada community really needs to help. The only reason why Think Pascal can run on a 1meg machine, with all its units, objects, etc., but Ada needs a humongous Mac and MPW to compile "hello," is that Think's creators decided to make it work and there's no equivalent to Think (yet...) in the Ada world. Any takers? Let's swap ideas. Mike Feldman
gosciak@muondev.uucp (Doug Gosciak) (01/21/91)
In <9101171940.AA06518@winnie.fit.edu> saharbaugh%roo.dnet@WINNIE.BERKELEY.EDU writes: >On 15 Jan 91 Mike Feldman writes: >-This is good news! I'm glad they finally took the plunge. This is an MPW >-system (MPW comes bundled, I believe). >Yes, it did >-I'd rather see a real Mac application >-instead of an MPW tool, but something is better than nothing. >Hmm, what is a "real Mac application". I quickly learned to like >the MPW. To me (a systems engineer) it is like having an easy-to-use >interface to a Unix command line system. I launch MPW then give >textual commands in a desktop window. I can enter comments, cut and >paste, scroll back and forth and repeat any command with a click and >an "enter", etc. If I want to know how to format a command line I pull down >Meridian's menu, make selections by clicking etc. and >Meridian builds the command >line piece-by-piece for me and explains what the command or option will do. >My personal preference is to then cut the command line from Meridian's >menu window to the MPW window. I'm not too demented(yet) to not >remember what the command and options do, so I use the "real-MAC"-like >feature as help and work out of the MPW window. >Also I use multifinder and bounce around windows and tools but >for large Ada source files I must turn multifinder off and just use MPW >because I only have 8MB of RAM(I can't believe I said only 8MB) >-The compiler >-is kinda slow, at least on my Mac+. It'll perform better on a 68020 Mac. >Yes, its much much faster on a IIci (25MHZ 68030) than on Mac+ >-Another breakthrough. A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event. >So my message is to give MPW a try, you might like it. >sam harbaugh saharbaugh%ROO.DNET@WINNIE.FIT.EDU >--------------------- Did I miss something? " A decent Mac compiler for $149. is a welcome event."? Does this mean that AdaZ is available for the MPW environment on the Mac? Please say yes!!!! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Snail: Doug R. Gosciak Quote: Become the one Net: gosciak@muondev.uucp 3321 Wyoming SW you dream you GEnie: DGOSCIAK Wyoming, MI 49509 can be. CI$: 72115,703