Yearly Fees for Support of Compilers

[Kevin Simonson]

I posted an article just a few days back about a problem getting the
vendor that sold us (the University of Washington) an Ada compiler for our
Sun 4, to look into a suspected bug in that compiler.  It turns out this
company DOES support its compilers, but only if we pay for that support, a
fee every year, apparently just in case there are bugs in the company's
compiler that its programmers overlooked.

Does anyone know if this is common?  Are there companies that instead of
charging a "compiler insurance" yearly fee, will just sell people their
compiler and will look into suspected bugs without charging a yearly fee?

I can understand human error in coding the compilers, but it seems to me
that such error shouldn't have to be payed for by the people using the
compiler.

I got a number of responses to my previous article from people who
suggested companies that sell Sun 4 Ada compilers.  I appreciate those re-
sponses and will check with each individually to see if they provide sup-
port without charging yearly for it.  But I thought I would post this in
case "compiler insurance" turns out to be a necessary evil that somebody
can tell me I have to live with.

                                      ---Kevin Simonson