larry@VLSI.JPL.NASA.GOV (12/15/87)
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We have just about decided to buy one of the smaller Rational
systems and try it out on two real 3-5 person jobs to evaluate
Ada as a mature technology. We'd want to get software--such as
their CMVC (Config Mgt & Version Ctl) option--to cover the entire
life cycle, not just hardware and compiler.
What sort of things should we look out for in making the purchase
that the sales people aren't likely to tell us (for malicious or
innocent reasons)? This includes "gotcha's", third-party SW or
HW, products or site- or training-preparations the sales people
might not know about, etc.
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In several pieces of Ada SW recently I've seen CASE statements
with dozens (in one case more than 200) alternatives. The longer
ones often implement subprogram-dispatch tables. I know some
compilers for other languages translate such statements into a
hashed-jump routine. Is this often done by Ada compilers, or
should programmers consider writing their own?
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Thanks in advance.
Larry @ jpl-vlsi