Unfortunately you touch upon a subject dear to business.
That is support.
Yes IBM receives a lot of money from companies like mine for its C compiler and AIX software. Fortunately Java is not near the fees.. yet.
But when it comes to a "five 9's SLA and performance guarantees" with sub second response time there has to be minimal room for error.
This in part requires effort on the coder to use proper error checking and handling. For the language the tools must exist to properly debug and support the effort aswell as provide for error and exception handling.
Then there is platform support. Just fyi the GNU C compiler for version 3.x does not work or work well in AIX 6. Something's broke for us when we upgraded to AIX 6.
Without delving into OS wars for a language to be successful as either a primary language for application or a support language supporting the backend processes I would think you'd want GPC to successfully compile in the primary business os's... zOS, AIX, Solaris with possibly cygwin under windows. pdksh is widely popular when having to delve into scripting on the windows platform.
So perhaps the bigger question is not how important is gpc for us but what have you set your sights on and what are you willing to do maintain a significant presence?
Personally I love pascal. I prefer it over java. Yet I have to connect to major databases usually with jdbc. DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Postgres are what most people in my area have to deal with for RDBM support. Are you, Peter, willing to make DB2, Oracle, MySQL and Postgres support as easy as jdbc is? Without database support the language is not really useful to most businesses.
FPC Pascal relies on ODBC drivers. With JDBC gaining such popularity I do not know how successful Unix odbc drivers are or will be. I haven't had to work with Unix ODBC for more than 10 years now. I am not sure merimar(merimac sp?) is even available any more.
So bottom line to be fully successful you need cross platform capability for 32 and 64 bit os's, native rdbm support with fully capable error handling/error checking support.
-----Original Message----- From: gpc-owner@gnu.de [mailto:gpc-owner@gnu.de] On Behalf Of willett Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 5:02 PM To: GNU Pascal mailing list Cc: Peter Gerwinski Subject: Re: How important is GPC for you?
Peter (and Frank and Waldek),
I have tens of thousands of lines of code that complies in GPC. Equally or more important, I code most fluidly in Classic Standard Pascal (7185) and Extended Pascal. I find Extended Pascal to be a very powerful and general-purpose language.
if I need or want to develop substantial code, I would use Extended Pascal, and I would want it to run on multiple platforms. Thus the project you describe would have value to me in that it would keep my existing code viable and would keep my options open.
On the above basis, I would be willing to contribute $500 to the project you describe in 2. I would be willing to pay in advance, given sufficient contributions from myself and others to complete the project, and given your assurance of a good faith effort to carry it to completion. I would also hope that there is some plan for 1. prior to embarking on 2., even if it is a separate effort.
I would encourage others on this list to answer Peter's question, which requires a specific commitment if this (substantial) project is to go forward. Note that it is not unusual to pay $1000 for a high-quality unix compiler, with subsequent upgrade fees. I'm replying on the public list rather than privately to Peter, since I did not see any others yet answering his question.
Willett Kempton Visible Software
On 15 Aug 2010, at 09:29, Peter Gerwinski wrote:
Hello, everyone!
Some of you might still remember me. From about 1995 to 2001 I was the main GPC developer who implemented BP-style units, objects, and other things. I am still hosting the GPC web pages, this mailing list, etc.
In 1998 I started my own company (G-N-U GmbH, http://www.g-n-u.de) doing business on free software. Our product range includes professional service for GNU Pascal, developing and customizing free software, and other services.
For a while, GNU Pascal was a very important tool for my company, which justified that I invested a lot of time and money into it. However, over the years more and more customers addressed me with other needs.
Meanwhile, GNU Pascal has reached a point where it needs full-time attention by an experienced GPC developer for several months.
The GCC backend is drifting away. Even if we just want to keep the existing language alive, without aiming at extensions, we need to transplant it onto a new, long-time stable backend.
It is very difficult for GPC enthusiasts to join the development team, since GPC is written in C rather than Pascal.
Realistically, only Waldek, Frank, and/or myself can replace the GPC backend or rewrite the GPC frontend in Pascal without breaking the compiler. However all three of us face the necessity to make a living and thus cannot afford to do that large amount of work just for fun. It needs to be funded.
I suggest to concentrate our forces on problem 2 and to rewrite the GPC frontend in Pascal without any backend. This gives you, Pascal programmers using GPC, the opportunity to watch the emerging new compiler and to become a GPC developer. Once this step is completed and the new compiler can represent a Pascal program in memory, the (hopefully enlarged) GPC development team has a free choice which backend(s?) to implement.
If GNU Pascal is important for you, please consider to invest into its future by funding our work on GPC.
You can contact me either on this list or in private email. Encrypted mail is welcome. Please find my public key at: http://www.peter.gerwinski.de/peter-gerwinski.public-key.asc
Greetings,
Peter
Dr. rer. nat. Peter Gerwinski - http://www.peter.gerwinski.de G-N-U GmbH - First Class IT Services - http://www.g-n-u.de German pages for GNU & free software - http://www.gnu.de GNU Pascal - http://www.gnu-pascal.de
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL This email transmission contains privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of the email is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination or copying of this email transmission is strictly prohibited by the sender. If you have received this transmission in error, please delete the email and immediately notify the sender via the email return address or mailto:postmaster@argushealth.com. Thank you.