Software Magazine ranks Independent SW Vendors

Software Magazine ranks Independent SW Vendors

[David Emery]

Software Magazine presented a listing of the top 100 Independent
Software Developers.  I saw three Ada companies, Rational at #58,
Alsys at #73 and Verdix at #87.  Rational reported revenues of $48.0
Million, Alsys of $43.0 Million, and Verdix of $24.8 Million.  Of
particular interest is that Rational is ranked #4 and Alsys is ranked
#8 in percentage spent on R&D (31% and 27%, respectively.  Verdix
reportedly spent 18% on R&D).  

On the other hand, In the chart showing "Languages Used", Ada didn't
make the chart.  C was mentioned 92 times, C++ 61 times, Assembler 49
times, and COBOL 31 times.  (I'm very surprised at the high percentage
of Assembler, and low percentage of COBOL.)  On the other hand,
there's no chart that correlates language with sales ranking, etc.  

I'd say that overall, the Ada industry comes out as small, but alive.
I'm particularly impressed with Ada's excellent showing in the R&D ranking.

				dave

Re: Software Magazine ranks Independent SW Vendors

[Dag Bruck]

In <comp.lang.ada> emery@goldfinger.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:
> Of particular interest is that Rational is ranked #4 ...
> in percentage spent on R&D (31%).

Hasn't Rational recently developed a C++ environment?  That ought to
be costly, considering the lack of support from the language :-).

		-- Dag Bruck, enthusiastic C++ user

Re: Software Magazine ranks Independent SW Vendors

[David Weller]

In article <21j2oq$561@nic.lth.se> dag@control.lth.se (Dag Bruck) writes:
>In <comp.lang.ada> emery@goldfinger.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:
>> Of particular interest is that Rational is ranked #4 ...
>> in percentage spent on R&D (31%).
>
>Hasn't Rational recently developed a C++ environment?  That ought to
>be costly, considering the lack of support from the language :-).
>
>		-- Dag Bruck, enthusiastic C++ user

To my knowledge, Rational isn't developing a C++ environment.  Perhaps 
you are referring to  (BLATANT ADVERTISING WARNING):
Rational Apex.  Rational's new software development environment for
Ada, running exclusively within Unix (bye-bye expensive hardware!).
It is currently running under RS/6000s and SPARC platforms.  I don't
know if it's available for other platforms (I'm not speaking for Rational,
I'm just reading their announcement on my desk).  It runs under
X (using the Motif user interface), and doesn't appear to be like
the "old" environment AT ALL (OK, that's my guess, looking at the tiny
1" picture on the announcement).

-- 
-Comments above aren't neceessarily the opinion of the SEI, AJPO, or CAE-Link-
David Weller  |  Have you hugged your DRAGOON lately?
----I'm the Ultimate International Masochist: I speak Ada AND Esperanto!-----