Re: Marketing Ada

[breland@mcc.com (Mark A. Breland)]

In article 13805@seas.gwu.edu, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>
>I remain skeptical about whether the industry in general really knows
>how to build markets. I fear that the Ada vendors may be all too typical
>of defense companies, which even as we speak are tearing their hair out
>trying to figure out how to cope in the post-Cold War world (see today's
>news for some Clinton-administration discussion of this matter). The
>Ada companies perceived their market to be mainly DoD-oriented and 
>captive and, in their myopia, missed the C++ wave coming and never
>built up marketing and sales expertise to break Ada loose from its
>defense origins and give it a real life of its own. 

To carry your analogy further, Mike, several vendors have elected to jump
on the new C++ bandwagon rather than propel Ada forward on its own merits.
So what we'll soon see are vendors with product lines supporting Ada, C,
AND C++.  This reactive response is typical of defense contractors (not all
mind you), who tend to jump with the latest technology, leaving perfectly
good products behind.  I fear such an environment will cause Ada to languish
in a pitiful pool of ignominy.

>There are signs of change, but - without slamming any one company 
>or individual - I think our skepticism is well-founded and even
>constructive. 

How true.

---
Mark A. Breland - Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)
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