RCONN@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Rick Conn) (10/19/85)
Your comment on pricing of Ada compilers is well-taken. They are all high, and there are several reasons for this. The DoD mandate is one, since this affects a large community that has no other choice than to use the language. Also, due to the complexity of an Ada compiler as opposed to compilers for other languages, development of an Ada compiler is more expensive. Finally, you can't just develop a compiler and call it Ada -- the compiler has to be validated by an Ada validation facility (gov't run) or you are subject to legal action by the gov't. This is also costly. You can't go half way with the language compiler development ... you have to develop a compiler for the whole language, less the Chapter 13 options in the Ada Reference Manual. The pricing scheme is shown in DEC's pricing of their Ada compiler for $25K per copy with no reduction for quantity purchases. The good Ada compilers which are to be validated and coming out for the IBM PC are running around the $1K figure (the GTC Ada is set at $1100, and I think the Alsys Ada is higher). To a large corporation, these costs are peanuts, and they allow Ada software development for the cost of an IBM PC and a $1K compiler as opposed to a VAX 11/780, DG MV10000, Honeywell 6180, etc and a $25K compiler. I really wanted to learn Ada, and two years ago I changed jobs to TI with that goal as one of the reasons. Then, the only good Ada compilers ran on large minis and mainframes. Today, the compilers are a lot better, the validation suite is catching more and more problem areas, and the costs are going down. I suspect that the first good Ada compilers for the IBM PC (which aren't expected to come out until early 86) will start higher in price and then go down as more Ada compilers become available and competition sets in. There are four IBM PC-based Ada compilers coming up for validation. Once all four are out, then we may start to see the prices going down. Rick Conn