From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,63ceef1cf4561e32 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Richard Riehle Subject: Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope? Date: 2000/07/24 Message-ID: <397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 650330949 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <8l01s4$gnr$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Accept-Language: en X-Server-Date: 24 Jul 2000 23:23:08 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-07-24T23:23:08+00:00 List-Id: 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