Meridian Open Ada: Difference between revisions
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Budget version of an [[Ada]] compiler for [[DOS]] shipped in 1990 by [[Meridian Systems]] under the name '''AdaZ''' but the name was changed to "Open Ada" after complaints from the The Analytic Sciences Corporation who shipped an Ada [[PDL]] tool under the name "Ada_Z", and early marketing material and beta versions of the package referred to it name as '''Reach'''. | Budget version of an [[Ada]] compiler for [[DOS]] shipped in 1990 by [[Meridian Systems]] under the name '''AdaZ''' but the name was changed to "Open Ada" after complaints from the The Analytic Sciences Corporation who shipped an Ada [[PDL]] tool under the name "Ada_Z", and early marketing material and beta versions of the package referred to it name as '''Reach'''. | ||
Its main claim to fame was that it contained an actual optimising Ada compiler and debugger with mostly complete library for only USD 149, even though it was not validated it was built on an older validated compiler and source compatible with the validated [[Meridian Ada]], opening up the possibility of developing on Open Ada and later compiling on a validated compiler. It also featured an excellent DOS interface library and most libraries actually came with source. | Its main claim to fame was that it contained an actual optimising Ada compiler and debugger with mostly complete library for only USD 149, even though it was not validated it was built on an older validated compiler and source compatible with the validated [[Meridian Ada]], opening up the possibility of developing on Open Ada and later compiling on a validated compiler. It also featured an excellent if somewhat incomplete DOS interface library and most libraries actually came with source. | ||
To cut corners and to supply a simple integrated [[IDE]] that was more like what amateur PC developers were used to the company licensed a copy of [[BlackBeard/2|BlackBeard]] but renamed it '''ACE''' and removed any references to the original BlackBeard name form the product, this gave them a front end that had a rather nifty hypertext help system, the usual syntax highlighting for keywords and options, and a menu system for keywords, but otherwise felt a little backwards next to contemporaries [[Borland Pascal]] and [[TopSpeed Modula-2]]. The toolkit also had support for interfacing with [[Microsoft C]] and [[MASM]] via a pragma mechanism, both as pre-processing and inline. | To cut corners and to supply a simple integrated [[IDE]] that was more like what amateur PC developers were used to the company licensed a copy of [[BlackBeard/2|BlackBeard]] but renamed it '''ACE''' and removed any references to the original BlackBeard name form the product, this gave them a front end that had a rather nifty hypertext help system, the usual syntax highlighting for keywords and options, and a menu system for keywords, but otherwise felt a little backwards next to contemporaries [[Borland Pascal]] and [[TopSpeed Modula-2]]. The toolkit also had support for interfacing with [[Microsoft C]] and [[MASM]] via a pragma mechanism, both as pre-processing and inline. | ||
==License & availability== | |||
* Discontinued commercial software, Initial price USD 149, in 1991 hiked up to 499 for the general public and 149 for students. | |||
==Publisher== | ==Publisher== | ||
* [[Meridian Systems]] | * [[Meridian Systems]] | ||
[[Category:DOS Tools]][[Category:Ada]] | [[Category:DOS Tools]][[Category:Ada]] | ||
Revision as of 20:45, 27 January 2016
Budget version of an Ada compiler for DOS shipped in 1990 by Meridian Systems under the name AdaZ but the name was changed to "Open Ada" after complaints from the The Analytic Sciences Corporation who shipped an Ada PDL tool under the name "Ada_Z", and early marketing material and beta versions of the package referred to it name as Reach.
Its main claim to fame was that it contained an actual optimising Ada compiler and debugger with mostly complete library for only USD 149, even though it was not validated it was built on an older validated compiler and source compatible with the validated Meridian Ada, opening up the possibility of developing on Open Ada and later compiling on a validated compiler. It also featured an excellent if somewhat incomplete DOS interface library and most libraries actually came with source.
To cut corners and to supply a simple integrated IDE that was more like what amateur PC developers were used to the company licensed a copy of BlackBeard but renamed it ACE and removed any references to the original BlackBeard name form the product, this gave them a front end that had a rather nifty hypertext help system, the usual syntax highlighting for keywords and options, and a menu system for keywords, but otherwise felt a little backwards next to contemporaries Borland Pascal and TopSpeed Modula-2. The toolkit also had support for interfacing with Microsoft C and MASM via a pragma mechanism, both as pre-processing and inline.
License & availability
- Discontinued commercial software, Initial price USD 149, in 1991 hiked up to 499 for the general public and 149 for students.