[Info-vax] VMS Software: New US Mailing Address

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 10/13/2022 7:54 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 10/13/2022 1:28 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-10-13, Single Stage to Orbit <alex.buell at munted.eu> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2022-10-13 at 13:00 +0000, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> Ada doesn't exist for x86-64 VMS and looks like it will never exist.
>>>
>>> GNU can step up with their GNAT compiler. In theory it should be
>>> possible to port it to VMS.
>>
>> AdaCore used to supply the compiler for Alpha and Itanium VMS as part
>> of an agreement between AdaCore and DEC.
>>
>> That VMS support was dropped several years ago by AdaCore.
>>
>> Given the nature of the Ada market, any such port would probably need
>> to be done, and fully supported, by a commercial company.
> 
> Beggers can be choosy, huh?
> 
> It would be interesting to have some idea of the size of the ADA 
> market.  Easier to tell if any such work would be worth doing.

It is well known that:
- overall usage of Ada has declined a lot the last 25 years
- most Ada usage is in embedded space
- VMS usage has also declined a lot the last 25 years

It seems very unlikely that the market for an Ada compiler
for VMS x86-64 will be huge.

Some may think that the software world would have been a better
place if Ada had the importance of C, but that does not change
how the world is today.

Specifically how much annual revenue the Ada compilers generate
is difficult to say. AdaCore must be the biggest vendor and it
seems like they do not publicize their financials (there are
guesses on the internet, but I have little confidence in those).
It is not a huge company - closer to VSI than to HPE.

Arne