* Re: The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake)
@ 1997-09-04 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1997-09-05 0:00 ` As long as the topic is drifting W. Wesley Groleau x4923
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96 @ 1997-09-04 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
Robert Dewar <dewar@MERV.CS.NYU.EDU> writes:
>Paul says
>
><<Technical superiority is not just a matter of having gee-whiz features,
>it is a matter of doing a better job.>>
>
>Sure, but who judges what is a better job. The answer is that the only
>person who can judge is the consumer. The VHS vs Beta example is a good
>one from this point of view. The tecnical folks at Sony thought that
>image quality was *the* important technical quality. But they were wrong,
>and they paid for their mistake. In fact playing time was much more
>important to the public.
>
I thought one of the biggest reasons that Beta didn't succeed was
that Sony refused to license the technology in order to keep 100%
of the market share (can you say "Apple?") and as a result there
was less available material to view. VHS mostly won out because
with lots of companies making players, lots of studios were
willing to put out material on that format regardless of any
technical superiority.
Hence what the market really decided on was not a technical issue
at all. It was more of a marketing blunder coupled with greed and
stupidity. (Not that Sony would be the first or the last to ever
make this mistake. The world is filled with such examples.)
>
>An interesting case is gathering steam now, there is a question of whether
>the new digital TV transmission capability should be used for HDTV, or
>more conventional channels. It is beginning to look more and more as though
>the public and the hence the networks, prefer more conventional channels.
>
HDTV has a similar problem and I liked your earlier observation
about asking the public what's wrong with TV and not having
resolution be named number one. Sure: All things being equal, I'd
rather get a sharper image on the screen. But I'd much prefer that
Hollywood put out material that wasn't so pathetic, lame, vulgar
and aimed at the lowest common denominator. If they would come out
with a) lots of viewing material and b) better quality viewing
material for HDTV, I might run out an buy a set. As it is, why
waste the money - Beavis and Butthead will be just about as
entertaining at lower resolution. (Maybe introduce the HDTV set
along with a companion VCR & lots of movies formatted for it and
put one on display in every Blockbuster? It'd take a lot of bucks,
but I bet the public would run out and buy it if the combined unit
cost could be kept under $500. Once you get a few million sets out
there, broadcast will follow...)
So to bring it back around to the topic of computer languages...
Technical superiority isn't the only factor in the consumer's
judgment about buying a computer language. Sometimes it's
availability of material. I may like Ada better than C, but for
lots of jobs, the only available compilers are C compilers, so
that's what we use. (Can't stop everything and retarget an
existing compiler - often takes too long or costs more than it's
worth) The decision isn't technical (except insofar as the market
itself may be considered a technical issue), it's based on other
concerns that are not a failure of some engineer to anticipate
what features I think will be important.
I know Ada has lots of marketing problems that aren't technical in
nature - not the least of which is incorrect perceptions on the
part of lots of engineers. e.g. "govt mandate = bad" "Ada = committee
design = bad" "dropping mandate = abandonment", etc, etc. I hear
it right across the aisle and any attempts to correct the
perception seem futile: "Ada is dead - I'm going with Java" Maybe
it would be wise to make a few superficial changes to the
language, give it a hip sounding new name, get some major software
or hardware vendor to back it and start fresh?
MDC
Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer ATT: 561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney GESP, M/S 731-96, P.O.B. 109600 Fax: 561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600 Internet: CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
* As long as the topic is drifting....
1997-09-04 0:00 The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake) Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
@ 1997-09-05 0:00 ` W. Wesley Groleau x4923
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: W. Wesley Groleau x4923 @ 1997-09-05 0:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
> entertaining at lower resolution. (Maybe introduce the HDTV set
> along with a companion VCR & lots of movies formatted for it and
> put one on display in every Blockbuster? It'd take a lot of bucks,
> but I bet the public would run out and buy it if the combined unit
> cost could be kept under $500. Once you get a few million sets out
> there, broadcast will follow...)
A certain political figure told how at one time the New York Times
bestseller list was based on the sales in three or four stores in
New York City. When he asked how to get people to read a certain
book, the answer was "people read what the best seller list tells
them everyone else is reading." So they went to those 3-4 stores,
bought lots of copies, and sure enough, the snowball kept rolling.
Perhaps there's a lesson there for Ada (or Eiffel) advocates.
--
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