Re: Ichbiah's letter to Anderson: Here it is

[bu.edu!inmet!dsd!ryer@purdue.edu (Mike Ryer)]

Greg complains about Intermetrics not advertising in embedded computer
magazines.  There is one overwhelming reason for that: we don't have
any Ada compilers for commercial embedded chips, just military ones.
Perhaps we should, but we invested our money elsewhere for Ada '83.

Even if we had Ada compilers for the Intel, Motorola, and similar chips,
we wouldn't necessarily advertise in magazines.  We run ads for our C
compilers to a) inform people that they exist, and b) transmit the message
that our products are reputable and popular.  We don't expect anyone to
choose C over Fortran, Smalltalk, or Ada because they saw a C compiler
ad.  We don't expect to convince anyone that our product is the best via
an ad either.  Ads yield little more than "awareness".

For Ada, people find out about compilers by checking the validated compiler
list.  We don't need the "we exist" sort of advertising.  The presence of
our C compiler ads gives us the "we're reputable" image which carries over
to Ada and our other business areas.

Have you noticed that the major Ada vendors are reporting greatly increased
sales this year?  The use of Ada is at an all-time high.  Reports of her
death are greatly exaggerated.

Greg, I agree that more marketing of Ada outside the mandated world is needed.
I just don't favor magazine ads for compilers.  The videotapes that we'll 
produce, and the other marketing activities already in progress, plus the
availability of GNAT, plus the entry of Ada into the OOP fray, will make a
difference.  Be patient a little longer, we're going as fast as we can on
all of these activities.

Mike Ryer
Deputy Manager
Development Systems Department
Intermetrics, Inc.