(SUMMARY) Modula-2 Under Solaris

From: Yoshio Turner (yoshio@maui.cs.ucla.edu)
Date: Sun May 16 1993 - 17:28:24 CDT


Thanks to everyone who replied to my request for information about
modula-2 compilers running under Solaris. Basically, the responses
were that EPC (search for "SUBJECT:EPC" below) is the product endorsed
by Sun, but there are also other options available, such as
ModulaWare's MCS cross-compiler product (see "SUBJECT:MCS" below).
Notably, no replies were sent from MCS users outside of ModulaWare.
There is also a murky Gnu project that supposedly someday will release
a Solaris Modula-2, but I have been unable to find out the status of
that project. There is also a beta version of Metrowerks for
SunOS 4.1 (***NOT*** Solaris) available via anon FTP (see "SUBJECT:METRO").
What follows is first a summary reply someone sent to me, followed by
replies that described just a single product. --Yoshio

-------------------------
        Funny you should ask.... We are looking for an answer to the same
problem -- Modula-2 on Solaris. Here is what I've found out so far:

Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd; UK
        Internet: support@epc.ed.ac.uk
        Cost for site license: $15,000 (educational)
        These are the guys recommended by Sun.

ModulaWare GmbH; Germany
        Internet: 100023.2527@compuserve.com
        Cost for site license: 25,000 DM - 75,000 DM depending on
                number of students
        They also have multi-user licenses for individual cpus for much
                less, but the price list was not too clear on the
                specifics and I am waiting for clarification on that point.
        They appear to have an IDE.

SUNY Buffalo; New York
        There is a guy there who is writing one. He was excited about
                the prospect of having us as a beta test site for his
                code. As we are planning to use this for incoming
                freshmen, we were less excited than he was.
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SUBJECT:EPC

We use Modula-2 for some teaching here so I've had to go off
and look into this. Try Edinburgh Portable Compilers
FAX +44-31-225-6644 or phone +44-31-225-6262 (they're in
Edinburgh in the UK). Kathleen Smith is the distribution
manager. They definitely have a Solaris 2.x version.
----------------------------------------
> EDINBURGH PORTABLE COMPILERS Ltd.
>
> Product Summary
>
> Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd. (EPC) provides a family of high
> performance compilers running on IntelJ386/486, SPARC,
> Motorola 88000 and IBM RS/6000 based systems, and operating
> under all the major implementations of UNIX, including UNIX V.3,
> UNIX V.4, SunOS, Solaris, AIX, Interactive, SCO, LynxOS, Dynix and
> Eurix.
>
> Each compiler complies with the relevant language standard and
> supports many extensions. EPC is committed to Open Systems
> standards, and its products adhere to X/OpenUs portability guide
> XPG3, Posix, the 88Open BCS/OCS and SPARC SCD compliance
> definitions.
>
> EPC compilers offer unrivalled diagnostic capabilities, including
> a post-mortem traceback of all the variables active at the time
> of failure. Such facilities are invaluable in shortening software
> development schedules.
>
> [...]
> EPC can be contacted at the following address:-
>
> Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd
> Sales & Marketing Department
> 17 Alva Street
> Edinburgh EH2 4PH
> United Kingdom
>
> Tel(UK):- 031-225-6262 Fax (UK):- 031-225-6644
> (w/w):- 44-31-225-6262 (w/w):- 44-31-225-6644
>
> email (within UK):- support@uk.ac.ed.epc
> (worldwide):- support@epc.ed.ac.uk
>
>
>
> In the USA, EPC are exclusively represented by Migration
> Software Systems Ltd, who can be contacted at:-
>
>
> Migration Software Systems Ltd.
> Sales & Marketing Department
> 2107 North First Street
> San Jose, California 95131
>
> Telephone:- (408)-452-0527
> Fax:- (408)-452-0686
>
> email:- mss_sales@migration.com
>
----------------------------------------
I just received a news letter from Edinburgh Portable Compilers
(EPC) which states that they have a Modula-2 compiler for
Solaris 2.x. I have no experience of this product, but they
advertise a wide range of compilers (Pascal, Modula-2, FORTRAN,
C, and C++) on a wide range of platforms (all UNIX: Intel 80x86,
Motorola 88000 range, SPARC and RS/6000). The newsletter gives
no indication of pricing.

Their street address is 17 Alva Street, Edinburgh EH2 4PH.
Telephone: 031-225 6262. Fax: 031-225 6644.
Email: support@epc.ed.ac.uk.
----------------------------------------
While Sun (more properly SunPro) has discontinued direct support of M2,
responsibility for it has been transferred to
        Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd
        17 Alva Street
        Edinburgh EH2 4PH
        Scotland
        Tel (44) 31 225-6262
        FAX (44) 31 225-6644
Looking through the Catalyst catalog I found some other M2 suppliers also.
(Try 1-800-742-4484 for a catalog or CD Ware demo cd.)

You could also email or call SunPro customer support at
        sunpro-support@Sun.com
        Tel (415) 336-5612
        FAX (415) 903-0713
----------------------------------------
        I seem to recall that when Sun discontinued their M2 compiler, they
announced that the EPC compiler would be their recommendation. Here is an
old announcement by EPC from comp.newprod :

[most of announcement deleted...]

EPC Modula-2 offers the Sun user community

* Sun Compatibility and Software Developer Productivity

  - compatibility with Sun's Modula-2 language and libraries
  - faster compilation times
  - support for Solaris (SunOS) dbx, tcov, prof and gprof

* EPC's extended functionality
 
  - em2make utility for automatic incremental compilation
  - improved interface to standard Sun "make"
  - language extensions from emerging standards, such as: -

    extended type conversions (VAL)
    additional data-types
    multi-dimensional open-arrays
    module finalizations

  - other language extensions, such as:-

    bit operators
    non-printing characters in strings
    pragmas for mixed-language programming

* Diagnostics, support and future Standards

  - superior run-time error-checking facilities and automatic
    postmortem diagnostic displays in source language terms
  - responsive support for error corrections, trouble-shooting and consultancy
  - EPC Modula-2 developments committed to emerging ISO Standard

[more deleted...]

In the U.S., Canada and Mexico: John Buchanan,
                                Migration Software Systems, Ltd
                                2107 North First Street, Suite 600
                                San Jose, CA 95131
                                Tel (408) 452-0527
                                Fax (408) 452-0686
                                E-Mail: mss_sales@migration.com

In other international areas: Kathleen Smith
                                Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd
                                17 Alva Street
                                Edinburgh, EH2 4PH
                                Scotland
                                Tel +44(31) 225 6262
                                Fax +44(31) 225 6644
                                E-Mail UK: support@uk.ac.ed.epc
                                E-Mail International: support@epc.ed.ac.uk
----------------------------------------
Edinburgh Portable Compilers (EPC) has a very good Modula-2 implemented for
several flavours of Unix. We use it on Sparc stations running SunOS 4.1
and on Motorola 88000 systems running SVR3.

They already have a version for Solaris 2.x. You find them in the
faq. We also used sun modula-2 for teaching and now have obtained the
EPC modula-2. The manual promises good compatibility with sun modula-2
code. supposed to take straight sun code with certain compile flags.
However its the wrong time of the year to fully test it as most
students are finished. we will be using it next academic year. By the
way it uses the flexlm license manager which has been giving us
problems. apparently to do with the version of flexlm that EPC got
from Highland software.

EPC's phone support is OKAY not stupendous. we are waiting for the
license problem to be solved.

Only pity that Sun didnt continue with modula-2 as it would have been
nice to use sparcworks with all our major languages and to have online
documentation.
----------------------------------------
Try Edinburgh Portable Compilers (support@epc.ed.ac.uk), tel +44 31
225 6262. They claim that their Modula-2 is "recommended by Sun
Microsystems, Inc as the successor to their own Modula-2 product".

I'm afraid that I haven't used it, but their Fortran compilers have a good
reputation.
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SUBJECT:METRO:

[yoshio's note: I downloaded this thing, and it seems to be
OK if you don't need anything sophisticated (like coroutines).
Although I may be wrong, it was hard to figure out since
there wasn't much documentation, and no source code except
for some really simple example Modula-2 programs.]

In article <1993May12.204715.3585@cs.ucla.edu>, you write:
> How about Metrowerks --
> there's supposed to be a free sparc version floating around,
> right (comp.lang.modula2's FAQ is wrong about its location)?

The location was valid at least in the last year. I've downloaded a
copy of it and I've made it available at titania.mathematik.uni-ulm.de
(134.60.66.21) under pub/soft/modula/metro. The compiler is for SunOS
4.1, though and I haven't heard yet anything about Modula-2 compilers
under Solaris.
----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------

SUBJECT:MCS

ModulaWare GmbH, Wilhelmstr. 17A, D-W 8520 Erlangen/F.R.Germany
Tel. +49 (9131) 208395, Fax +49 (9131) 28205.
E-mail/Internet: 100023.2527@compuserve.com

Price List

MCS V4.4 Modula-2 Compiler System

with IDE for either I'386/486, SunSparc, or MC 680x0 based platform

Campus License Prices for non-profit educational organisations

Base software license price depends on the total number
of students at the University.

  Total number of students Price/DM
____________________________________________________
  up-to
    - 5000 25000
    - 10000 45000
    - 20000 60000
    - 30000 70000
  more than 30000 75000

Software support for 12 months is not included:
12 months software support is 35% of the base price.

Currency exchange information: 1.- US$ is equal to 1.50 DM

ModulaWare GmbH, Wilhelmstr. 17A, D-W 8520 Erlangen/F.R.Germany
Tel. +49 (9131) 208395, Fax +49 (9131) 28205.
E-mail/Internet: 100023.2527@compuserve.com

                          The MCS Modula-2 System V4.4
                               Technical Description

  
  This overview describes the components of the MCS Modula-2 program
development system under Unix. MCS is a configurable host/target system in
that it is capable to compile programs on any supported host for any
supported target.

Supported platforms include the Unix-platforms:

PC/AT (ESIX, LynxOS, ... - '386 & '486, flat memory model only),

HP 9000 series 300 & 400,

SUN Sparc-1 & 2 and

  other systems that use the Motorola 680x0 processors under Unix and OS-9.

  The 680x0 based back-end was developed in 1987, the Intel '386/'486
back-end is available since 1990 and the SUN Sparc-RISC is available since
fall '92.

[technical details deleted...]

ModulaWare GmbH, Wilhelmstr. 17A, D-W 8520 Erlangen/F.R.Germany
Tel. +49 (9131) 208395, Fax +49 (9131) 28205.
E-mail/Internet: 100023.2527@compuserve.com

Price List

MCS V4.4

Modula-2 Compiler System

for Motorla 680x0, Intel '386 and Sun SPARC processors

under the operating systems Unix and OS-9.

MCS for Solaris 2.0 and OS/2 V2.0 (protected mode) available soon.
Availability and pricing for NeXt/NeXtStep on request.

 
Price List

Group classification:
I MCS with integrated development environment (IDE)
II MCS without IDE
III MCS with IDE and cross system extension
IV MCS with IDE and cross system and cross debugger extension

                                                Price in DM Price in DM
class | host computer & operating | group | up-to | more than
      | computer system | | 3 user | 3 users
____________________________________________________________________________
      | | | |
A | reserved | | |
      | | | |
____________________________________________________________________________
      | | | |
      | PC/AT 80386 under Unix | I | 2200 | 4400
B | | II | 1500 | 3000
      | | III | 2160 | 4320
      | | IV | 2700 | 5400
____________________________________________________________________________
      | | | |
      | OS-9 Systems | I | 2700 | 5400
C | PC/AT 80486 under Unix | II | 1800 | 3600
      | PC/AT under LynxOS | III | 2600 | 5200
      | Sun SPARC 1 and 2 / SunOS | IV | 3240 | 6480
____________________________________________________________________________
      | | | |
      | HP 9000 series 300 | I | 4200 | 8400
D | VMEbus Systems under Unix | II | 2800 | 5600
      | VMEbus Systems under LynxOS | III | 4050 | 8100
      | Sun SPARC 10 / SunOS | IV | 5040 | 10080
____________________________________________________________________________
      | | | |
      | HP 9000 series 400 | I | 6000 | 12000
E | Multiprocessors with 80486 | II | 4000 | 8000
      | Multiprocessors with SPARC | III | 5760 | 11520
      | | IV | 7200 | 14400
____________________________________________________________________________

     Prices include one documentation set in English for a 3-user's license
and 3 sets otherwise.

Upgrade to MCS V4.4 from previous versions:
  from MCS V4.0: 90% of list price
  from MCS V4.1: 80% of list price
  from MCS V4.2: 60% of list price
  from MCS V4.3: 40% of list price

Annual Software Support:
  12 months update service with cartridge tape exchange: 35% of list price
     incl. upgrade to new versions

     For multipe MCS software licenses, the annual software support price is
multiplied by the factor squareroot(n), where n is the number of licenses at
the same institute or department of the company or organisation.

     On request, extended software support and hot-line service can be
offered.

     Universities and non-profit educational organizations get 50% discount on
all prices mentioned above. Special discounted site licenses are available for
University institutes; please call.

     Demo kits of MCS V4.4 with full functionality but restricted linker
version are available for a handling charge of DM 75.-(incl. postage and
package) to test the software. The demo kit includes 3 1/2" PC/DOS floppy disk
(compressed cpio) and documentation.

Currency exchange information: 1.- US$ is equal to 1.50 DM



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