Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope?

[Richard Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com>]

mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote:

> We're bidding on a custom industrial controller, and I've proposed to
> write the firmware in Ada.  The powers-that-be here are satisfied with
> that, but the customer is afraid nobody will be around to maintain it.
> They're happier with C or C++, alas.  Anybody have any good answers to
> their concern?
>

This situation is so common that we should have some kind of canned
response.   However,
there are a lot of people out there who will never be persuaded about the
virtues of Ada over
C and C++ regardless of what facts are presented.    A bunch of misinformed
software developers
at a mid-west USAF base comes to mind.

Someone once said, "He convinced against his will is of the same opinion
still."   Your customer
will continue to be wary of Ada simply because of the widespread mythology
about it.

A few things can be said that might make sense.   An Ada program,
well-written will probably be
more readable ten years from now than any program in C or C++ by a
programmer who has never
seen any of the above mentioned languages.   The Ada compiler you used for
the project will
still be around somewhere.   If someone understands the nature of firmware,
that same someone
will have no difficulty understanding your Ada code unless you make it so
cryptic that it reads like
C or C++ just to be mischievous.

That being said, I doubt you will have any success persuading the customer
that Ada is a better
choice.  Such people make up their minds, like the previously mentioned
software developers, and
simply close their minds to anything different from what they have already
decided.  You could write
the code in both languages and let them see the difference.  Doubt that
will help, but it might be worth
a try.

On the bright side, there seems to be a growing awareness that Ada has some
important benefits and
the increase in job postings here along with the increase in new companies
seeking Ada training seems
to indicate that all is not lost.

Richard Riehle
richard@adaworks.com
http://www.adaworks.com