sankar@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Sriram Sankar) (05/04/90)
This message is a follow-up to an earlier message I posted a few weeks ago on the Meridian Ada compiler. In the earlier message I mentioned that I had Meridian's beta version of their 4.0 extended version compiler, and was having a lot of problems with it. I also mentioned that some features like tasking seem to have been implemented quite *efficiently*. Since that message, Meridian has sent me a copy of the latest version of their compiler (both extended and regular). I've tried it out on a lot of my programs (including all those with which I had problems using the earlier compiler). This compiler does not have any of those earlier problems. This message is therefore to retract what I said in my earlier message. The new compiler is much faster. Its the first time I managed to actually run my windowing system for the PC with Meridian's debugger. I could have the debugger I/O redirected to a serial port, and get it displayed on another PC screen (which was running kermit). Having said all these nice things about the Meridian compiler, I should also mention that trying out a new compiler on existing software is only one aspect of evaluating a compiler. Over the next month or so, I'll be attempting to develop non-trivial software using this compiler. ONLY AFTER I COMPLETE THIS PROJECT WILL I BE WILLING TO GIVE MY COMPLETE BACKING TO THIS COMPILER. Sometime early this summer, I hope to complete my evaluation and will post the results on the newsgroup. I may also distribute any interesting software that comes out of this project so that you can see for yourself the complexity of the programs I've developed. Sriram Sankar Research Associate Computer Systems Lab., ERL449 Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. (415)723-1835.