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From: eric@sarin.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: comp.sources.misc Administrivia: VMS binary problem solved
Message-ID: <34@sarin.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 07:24:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: sarin.34
Posted: Tue Aug 11 07:24:02 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Aug-87 16:33:20 EDT
References: <3707@ncoast.UUCP> <344@inco.UUCP>
Organization: Sarin Inc., Owings Mills, Md.
Lines: 51
Summary: Ada sources should be posted

In article <344@inco.UUCP>, mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack) writes:
> In article <3707@ncoast.UUCP>, allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
> > Most commonly asked question:  "Why didn't he post sources?"
> > He did.  Unfortunately, they were in Ada; not many Ada compilers out there for
> > VMS.  So he posted a binary of the program for those lacking Ada compilers.
> 
> Brandon, there are at least 8 Ada compilers for VMS.
> I don't know how many people who run VMS actually have an Ada compiler,
> but it isn't because they aren't out there.
> 
> Refusing to post source in Ada because there aren't very many compilers is
> bogus. There aren't very many Modula-2 compilers around either, but that
> hasn't stopped people from posting Modula-2 code.
> 
> If you have the source available, you might consider submitting it to the
> SIMTEL20 Ada Archive.

Let me say amen to that. But more important, the majority of companies that
subscribe to usenet *and* who do business with the government have
at least one Ada compiler on their system.  What a nice contribution
to reusable code the ada sources would have made. Or perhaps they
may not have been such a nice contribution. We'll never know because
we never saw it.  That's sad. 

Brandon, you may or may not like ada. That's your perogitive. 
You may not like it because you don't understand it. You may not
have one feeling about it one way or another. Thats ok too. Because
you may not have the familiarity with the language or even have the
need too, you are simply reflecting that by the above statements. 

If the sources are available would you be willing to post 
the sources to comp.lang.ada, or to mail them to me and
I'll post them on my unaxcess bbs which has a conference dedicated to
ada, or like the above commentator said,would you send them to SIMTEL20
care of Rick Conn. He maintains over 40 mbytes of Ada archives. There
are now Ada compilers for the PC that have been validated and
are cheap (relatively speaking). Unless the code is so heavily hardware
dependent, it should be easy porting to another validated ada compiler.
A lot easier than porting SYSV to Berkeley. 

The point is that as moderator, you walk a narrow line. Its not easy taking
into account the needs of the general community. Especially when the needs
of that community change so frequently. Please hear from the two
responses that there is a need to see Ada sources. 

Thanks,

Eric Beser
Westinghouse DEC
{mimsy}!aplcen!cp1!sarin!eric
EBESER@ADA20