Very Computer

Following are the C++ compilers from 'Sun':
Sun WorkShop 6
Forte Developer 7
Sun studio 9

Why is different naming convention followed by 'Sun' for each compiler
version? Sun Workshop, Forte, Studio etc.

Is my understanding wrong? Do they represent separate category of Sun
tools/utilities ?  Could anybody shed light on all these?

Thanks!

Sun's marketing department only knows.

Quote:>Is my understanding wrong? Do they represent separate category of Sun
>tools/utilities ?  Could anybody shed light on all these?

No, you understand correctly.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions.  They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

There is a catch: AFAIK, the GNU/Linux version of Sun Studio 9 is only
an IDE, and uses GCC as a compiler.

So Sun Studio 9 does not always mean "compiler".

Anybody still not confused?
:-)

Laurent

Yeah - you got it quite right. It took me quite some time
to fight through this jungle of different names. At least
version numbers incremented consistently among the different
releases.

But this is not the only occurence concerning Sun's products.
I think the marketing group does no good changing names. I think
names should stay wheather they sound currently popular or not.
Look at the containers or zones or whatever they are called
today. Or the Operating Environment/Operating System - what's
it called Solaris, SunOs? Well, I know SunOS is the kernel
and Solaris is the complete product with all the software.
But it took some time to learn and understand...

The worst thing with this is that you have a really hard day
if you must look up something from an older revision. Sun's
documentation is quite good compared to their competitors. But
the marketing group messes all these benefits up by changing
names one or two times a year. And the time needed for getting
to know what version has which name is a factor concerning
total cost of ownership.

So - can anybody tell me, why they still get money for changing
product names? I think their costomers are all engineers -
so why don't let the engineers make the names. Marketing should
be more than creating fancy new names nobody cares at all
about!

Cheers,

Tom

I think the majority of their customers are clueless IT managers and
other executive simpletons. They are the ones with most of the
decision-making power, so SUN marketing will target them and not the
engineers. They will understand simple phrases like "reduce cost and
complexity". There's not much of a point talking about "kernel
instrumentation" to them.
But even if engineers would be making the decisions, I believe marketing
would still play an important role.

If you want to understand marketing/PR, I would suggest this little
paragraph as a starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creel_Commission

I have the impression SUN marketing is referring to Solaris as an
"operating system" again these days (it used to be an "operating
environment"). I suppose even "system" was too technical :-) .

Kristof

Use the compiler's version numbers, i.e., cc -V (C), CC -V (C++),
f90/f95 -V (Fortran 90/95). Those will make sense, whereas
name changes invented by marketing never do. Some other companies
change their names, Sun's marketing just changes all product names.

Thomas

Quote:> Following are the C++ compilers from 'Sun':
> Sun WorkShop 6
> Forte Developer 7
> Sun studio 9

> Why is different naming convention followed by 'Sun' for each compiler
> version? Sun Workshop, Forte, Studio etc.

As already said, the difference is primarily marketing.

There is, however, a fair difference between the "Compiler Collection"
(Studio 8 only, AFAIK), which does not include the Java IDE or the
visual GUI builder.

There have also been fairly substantial changes for Solaris x86. The
Fortran compiler was dropped for Studio 7 and 8, but restored for Studio
9.

A bientot
Paul
--
Paul Floyd                 http://paulf.free.fr (for what it's worth)
Surgery: ennobled Gerald.