A customer base that does a lot of home-grown programs gets more supported compiler options this month. HP 3000 owners can now get official support for the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) including C++ from Allegro Consultants (www.allegro.com, 408.252.2330).

Allegro will work 24x7 front line support for sites that want to employ C and C++ compilers and the related GNU tools in HP e3000 production environments. In addition to C and C++, several other GNU compilers are in development for the system. The software is available at no charge under freeware GNU agreements on the Web at HP’s Jazz site at jazz.external.hp.com/src/gnu/gnuframe.html. Allegro will also be setting up a new support site, www.gccsupport.com, which will include the GNU software and advice on using it in MPE and other environments.

Mark Klein of DIS International, the developer who first ported GNU C++ to the 3000 in 1994, will work with Allegro staff on support and enhancements to the compiler collection. Klein has carried the GNU banner longest for the platform, starting the porting process in 1993 in evenings and weekends. The development community both inside HP and in the 3000 customer base has come to rely on him for help on deploying the compiler collection.

The Allegro support transforms C++ into a business enterprise for the e3000 community, and promises funding for further developments.

“The number of GCC users has grown to the point that Mark doesn’t have the time to deal with the number of people who call him looking for help installing or using GCC and its related tools,” said Gavin Scott of Allegro. “It provides funding to help ensure that the best available engineers work to port and maintain the MPE GCC implementation as a professional, world-class compiler.”

Allegro calls on longstanding compiler experience in starting the e3000’s first support business for GNU compilers. The company developed and sells a PA-RISC version of the SPL compiler SPLash when the HP 3000 entered the RISC era in the late 1980s. SPL was the fundamental programming language used to create MPE when the 3000 was first released in 1972, and SPLash is the HP-recommended replacement for SPL/V. Allegro says it’s in discussions about creating an IA-64 version of SPLash.

“Allegro and Mark Klein are working to bring the full benefits of the modern GCC suite to the HP e3000,” said Scott. “We want to offer high quality support to customers who would otherwise be hesitant to use a free compiler for production work on the HP e3000.”

Scott and others at Allegro stress that the GNU compilers don’t stop at C and C++, although that’s the only language that’s been completed and in production use for e3000s. Compilers for COBOL, Java and Fortran are in various stages of development. The Java compiler appears to be the closest to completion, lacking only a runtime component.

Support for the GNU C++ compiler gives the language the criteria needed to enter production use in many customer environments. HP’s Commercial Systems e3000 division (CSY) has been using C++ on projects such as its Apache/iX Web server for years, relying on Klein’s support services to CSY engineers.

HP has been considering which C++ compiler it will support on the IA-64 systems it will offer for MPE/iX. The GNU compiler is among the candidates.

Allegro notes that none of the other languages in the compiler collection have been used on a 3000 “for real work, so the real benefit today is still for people who want C or C++,” Scott said, “but the goal is to continue to bring more components of GCC onto the 3000 as people start demanding them.”

The port of a free Java compiler is at the head of customer wish lists, Allegro said, and Klein has the compiler working on the HP 3000. The runtime support for Java is awaiting MPE enhancements that HP is developing for its own HotSpot Java compiler.

C++ has already demonstrated its value to the e3000 customer, working as the primary language at the heart of Java/iX, Domain Name Server software, Samba/iX file sharing and a host of other system-level applications ported from Unix environments like the HP 9000. Much of the industry’s Internet-related software is written in C++, a language HP has never offered as a product for the HP 3000.

The support business that Allegro is beginning is intended to fund further development on GNU compilers and tools. The support will cost $1,995 per year for two contacts in each supported company, and is not based on the number of HP 3000s or the size of the systems. Because the software itself is free, a 3000 customer’s investment in GNU compilers will be far less than buying a supported compiler from HP for their 3000.

Allegro understands the support service announcement adds new compilers to e3000 development options. While the company is not warranting the compilers themselves, the services they will provide transform freeware into something a 3000 can use in development of mission-critical systems.

“It’s certainly not a given that you can make money with “free” software in this way, and we don’t know for sure that enough people will be willing to accept this mechanism for funding the support and development of the GCC stuff,” Scott said. “But we’re hopeful that enough will recognize both the direct benefits — someone who is willing to back the product — and the indirect benefits: continued porting and enhancement efforts for a free software product.”