Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!sun-spots-request From: camscan!balen@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Henry Balen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Sun's unbundling of C and pricing questions Keywords: Software Message-ID: <7453@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 5 May 90 13:18:38 GMT Sender: root@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 30 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu X-Refs: Original: v9n145, Replies: v9n145 v9n149 X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 149, message 19 aten@afcsa.af.mil (Bill Aten) wrote: >Sun recently announced the release of Sun C 1.0 -- an unbundled C compiler >which "will be the basis for all future C compiler performance >improvements and feature enhancements". Is this really going to be the only C compiler supported by Sun? What will happen to the C compiler that comes with the system? What will happen in the future... (Will Sun unbundle the linker?) Will they be taking the C libraries off the system? (I was under the impression that C and it's libraries were closely interwined with the UNIX system!) On a more serious note, what happens to support for the C compiler that is bundled in. Will Sun fix any bugs that a customer has come across? I was under the impression that our maintenance contracts are for all the software bundled into the system. From the rest of the article it appears that the C compiler will be expensive for any serious development team (see Bill Aten's calculation for the compiler on a Server with ten users!). This leads on to other sources of C compilers. If you are developing Sparc software I suppose you could always get a Solbourne -- they bundle in a C compiler and a C++ translator! (and there is always GNU) I am not familiar with some of the other compilers on the market, but I am sure that as the Sparc gets more popular and `shrink wrap' software comes along then cheap C compilers will also be available. Henry Balen Camscan, Saxon Way, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB3 8SL, UK.