pvarner@blackbird.afit.af.mil (Paul A. Varner) (05/07/90)
To whomever can help me: I am thinking of buying the Merdian Ada Student compiler and I was wondering how limited of an Ada compiler it is. I don't plan on using it for heavy development work, but more for exploring the Ada language. Please E-mail your responses and I will summarize and post if there is enough interest. Thanks in advance. pvarner@blackbird.afit.af.mil
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Mike Feldman) (05/08/90)
In article <1584@blackbird.afit.af.mil> pvarner@blackbird.afit.af.mil (Paul A. Varner) writes: >To whomever can help me: > I am thinking of buying the Merdian Ada Student compiler and I was >wondering how limited of an Ada compiler it is. I don't plan on using it >for heavy development work, but more for exploring the Ada language. >Please E-mail your responses and I will summarize and post if there is >enough interest. Thanks in advance. Many of my students have purchased AdaStudent and been quite happy with it. It is a full implementation of Ada with a few exceptions, necessary to give Meridian a way to differentiate it from the expensive version. To summarize: - chapter 13 support is not there, so you can't explore rep-specs, interrupt entries, and the like. This is an interestng part of the language, but there's a lot of Ada to explore without it. Until recently, many "full" compilers didn't do chapter 13 very well, either. - there is a limit on the number of libraries (other than the "normal" user's own Ada library). This is an inoffensive restriction, as there is no real limitation on the size of your own library. I think you can link to 1 or 2 additional ones; I would be more definitive if I could find my documentation in my messy office. - they have not (yet) implemented their version 4 runtime system in AdaStudent. This means that tasking is run-till-blocked, not pre-emptive. I don't have a clear answer on whether Meridian will implement it or not. I imagine they will, as it's less expensive for them to maintain one version than two. - Tasking and generics, and everything else not mentioned, is fully implemented. The compiler appears to be the full one, stripped down as above. Because of the stripping, it is not validatable. IMHO, AdaStudent is a good investment of $50.00; the next step up is AdaGraduate, which is $495. For your $50.00, you get a serviceable and sufficiently fast compiler, binder, and debugger, which should carry you a long way in exploring the language. I don't usually write public reviews of compilers (versions change too fast) but I think AdaStudent is a very good deal. If you want to spring some more money, ($249. I think), you might consider Academic IntegrAda from AETech. It is a Janus/Ada compiler with a Turbo-like development environment wrapped around it. Also some useful DOS libraries. I am using it to develop lots of little Ada programs for a book. I'm pretty happy with it overall. Either package is worthwhile. In my opinion, if Meridian had an environment like IntegrAda, it would really be dynamite. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Michael Feldman Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science The George Washington University Washington, DC 20052 +1-202-994-5253 mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
westley@corsair.uucp (Terry J. Westley) (05/09/90)
In article <1845@sparko.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu () writes: >IMHO, AdaStudent is a good investment of $50.00; the next step up is >AdaGraduate, which is $495. For your $50.00, you get a serviceable and >sufficiently fast compiler, binder, and debugger, which should carry you >a long way in exploring the language. I don't usually write public reviews >of compilers (versions change too fast) but I think AdaStudent is a very >good deal. >Prof. Michael Feldman Meridian: Please make an equivalent package for the Mac. It doesn't need to access the Mac Toolbox. I, for one, would buy it. I was forced to buy the ~$120 Janus and use borrowed PCs even though I have a Mac at home. Now, I don't have such easy access to PCs. -- Terry J. Westley Arvin/Calspan Advanced Technology Center P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225 acsu.buffalo.edu!planck!hercules!westley
mjb@wdl1.UUCP (Melvyn J Brauns) (05/09/90)
We have an employee (who is also on the faculty of Nat'l Univ locally) who's been teaching Ada for about 10 years now. He uses the Meridian and would probably be glad to share some of his experiences with you on its use. He's not normally on this net, so voice contact is a better choice. His name is Ken Gamble, and you can reach him (at Ford Aerospace, Space Systems Division, Palo Alto, CA) at 415/852-4337.