Re: JANUS/ADA

In article <1069@ima.ISC.COM> herman@marlin.nosc.mil (John W. Herman) writes:
>Having seen a short blurb about the Janus ADA compiler, the author of the
>article didn't know if the subject compiler has really been certified by
>DOD. Does anyone know if this compiler has been validated? Selling a
>validated ADA compiler for $99 sounds too good to be true.


I've seen this in Janus advertisements (Computer Language Volume 5 Number 5,
Page 54 full page ad: "... Validation Suite ACVC 1.9") and I doubt the AJPO or
whoever is in charge of the watchdog process would let this go on long if it
weren't true, but I don't want to be the one to furnish the authoritative
"yes"; I don't have the right.


Remember that "validated" means it passed the validation test suite; it does
not mean "useable", "fast", "friendly", "produces efficient code", or even
"bug free", so check it out with some current users before taking the plunge.
(The benchmark performance stats in the above mentioned ad are _very_
impressive against the competition, though; hard to tell what the trade-offs
are.)


All the mandatory "buyer beware" items taken care of, however, you have to
admire the persistence of the Janus folks. Back when Ada/Ed was the only
validated anything, and the whole universe was saying a working Ada compiler
was never going to happen in our lifetimes and was beyond the state of the
compiler writers' art, and subset compilers were "illegal", and delivery dates
on Ada compiler contracts were slipping a year and more, an awful lot of
government contractors' start-up and proof of concept Ada programming
contracts were being done on humble Janus/Ada
subset-of-something-or-other-you-guess compilers running on Apple-II+'s with
CP/M cards. The Janus folks have stuck with the project for at least four lean
years, and I think at least one corporate transition; if they have finally
been validated, it is hard to find a group more deserving. If they want to
continue producing the poor-man's Ada, more power to them. Whatever its
performance, I'll bet it is worth more than 1/30th of the $3000 product at the
high priced end of the personal computer Ada compiler market, and if there
were an Amiga version at that $99 price I'd snap up a validated one in an
instant, for me.


Kent, the man from xanth.
(Usual commercial interest disclaimers; commentator only.)
[From kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Kent Paul Dolan)]
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