Re: GNAT Support Costs

["Marin D. Condic" <mcondic-nospam@quadruscorp.com>]

DuckE wrote:
> 
> I believe the relatively high cost of support for GNAT for small projects is
> an indication that ACT is not "hungry" for paying customers.  I view this as
> a sign that Ada Core is a healthy company.
> 
Or, they have made a strategic decision to address only the "high end"
of the market. (Rolls Royce did not market a Yugo-esque vehicle, eh?) I
can understand how someone would decide that the small projects & little
guys will not generate enough revenue to make it worth the time you will
put in supporting them. 

Without having a set of numbers to work with, I couldn't possibly say
with any certainty if it would pay to try to provide lesser levels of
support. What I *could* say is this: When I was at Pratt & Whitney, we
might have paid the large cost of ACT support for an embedded compiler
(A market they are not addressing - at least not from my experience.
Things may be changing since last it was an issue for me.) for an engine
control or similar "mission critical" products. We would not consider
that sort of price tag for compilers we were using to build support
tools on PCs & Workstations. We would simply live with the bugs & find
ways around them while developing in-house experience on how to get the
compiler to do what we wanted. Had ACT been able to offer me "X hours of
telephone support for $1000" I might have been able to get that kind of
money and certainly could have used it. I could not justify the full-up
price tag and didn't need all of the services. (Updates and bug-fixes
for a compiler that basically already works well just wouldn't make
sense for building support tools.)

ACT may have decided they didn't want that business, but that doesn't
mean there aren't lots of people who would be willing to give that
business to *someone*. The question would be if that segment of the
market can be addressed in a way that is profitable.

MDC
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