unix development tools

[dkatz at kenan.com (Daniel Katz)]

> I was wondering if anyone at BLU could make some recommendations for Unix
> development tools - compiler, linker, debugger, integrated text editor, etc.
> GSI is using __very__ old versions gcc and gdb, and needs to upgrade for
> better productivity. Are there are consultants at BLU would could make
> recommendations, or be available to do onsite analysis of the situation?

I think it's worth pointing out that one of the key benefits to free
software solutions in this arena is the uniformity of the development
environment across different versions of unix/linux/etc....  While it is
possible that proprietary tools may be more efficient on particular
platforms (e.g., aCC might produce more efficient code than gcc on an
HP-UX box, depending on what you're doing), you will end up having fits
when you try to use similar (but not identical) tools on other
platforms.  The savings in having your compiler, debugger, etc. all work
the same way with the same features/options/bugs and the same interface
everywhere is considerable.  This is especially true for tools which are
non-standardized or recently standardized (e.g., C++ compilers -- none
of them meet the ansi standard completely, and they all fail in
different ways).  

Of course, there are some products for which there are no free versions
at present (e.g., Purify)... :-(

Dan Katz
-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).