Sun C questions

[Mark Plotnick]

We're trying to decide whether or not to get Sun C for our site (100
copies, since there's no way to restrict who uses which machine).  I have
a few questions:

- is there any official word from Sun on what features Sun C has, what
  features it will have (e.g. ANSI compatibility), and how its update and
  support policy will differ from that of the bundled product?  All I've
  been able to get out of our sales rep is a press release that says "Sun C
  1.0 will be the basis for all future C compiler improvements and
  enhancements" and a photocopy of a description of SourceBrowser.

- The bulk pricing is attractive, but the major cost will be maintenance.
  We were told that the cost is $10/month/RTU license, which will mean
  $12K/year.  But in this month's Sun Observer, the SparCompiler product
  manager is interviewed.  The article says "Sun charges $50 per month per
  site for software support of each of its compiler products.  Thus, if a
  software development house has three licensed compilers, say Fortran, C
  and Pascal, it would pay $150 per month in software support fees -
  regardless of the number of programmers." Now, the article mixes
  paraphrases with quotes, so I'm not sure if this is true.  I asked my
  sales rep about this a few weeks ago, but there's been no response yet.
  Since $600/yr is a far cry from $12K per year, we'd like to know what
  we'll have to pay.

- How will support of the bundled C product change?  If it's determined
  that the bundled C compiler will not be "improved" any more, might Sun
  make its source code available at an affordable price so that customers
  can fix bugs themselves?

	Mark Plotnick
	mp at allegra.att.com