Re: Ada vendors and the art of selling used cars

[Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com>]

Jerry Petrey wrote:

> My experience with Aonix has not been a good one.  [snip, snip ]
>  I tried contacting the lady who handled
> this.  [snip, snip ]
> I called dozens of times, left messages
> and never received a return call.  I finally gave up ...
> I tracked down a way to call her without going through the phone
> system.  She quickly dismissed all the trouble I had reaching her and
> said since
> my support contract had expired I would have to pay for two years to
> catch up (even
> though there had not been any updates in that last year).
>
> In my previous job at Lockheed using an Aonix Ada compiler we paid an
> outrageous
> price for support which was still not good.

This kind of thing seems to be a holdover from the days when Ada compiler
publishers had the DoD over a barrel and could charge whatever the market
would bear and provide minimal support.   It is much like the Microsoft
monopoly position of today.   Now that Ada is not a mandated language, the
Ada compiler publishers must learn how to deal with an open market place.
Some will do this well.  A few are already making some progress.   Others
may still function as little bureaucracies where arrogance toward the client
is a way of life.

My own experience with Aonix has not been quite this bad.   However, I don't
find myself purchasing their products at present.   Before the grand inquisition
that resulted in the sacking of their best Ada people, Aonix was a pretty good
Ada company.   I could always get to someone who knew the answer.  Now,
the Ada people at Aonix have become anonymous disembodied voices on the
telephone, people who seem not to have the enthusiasm or dedication to Ada
we saw in the likes of Dave Wood, Ben Brosgol, or Ed Falis.   In its
transformation
from a company of Ada zealots to a company of employees who happen to
have an Ada product, Aonix seems to have lost its energy.  Perhaps this is not the

case, but it is the impression they are giving to the rest of the Ada community.

There was a time when we would receive email updates about their current
products and successes.   At present, the only Ada companies to consistently
report this kind of thing to the community are ACT and  DDC-I.   Joyce Tokar
continues to do a good job of this.

Perhaps Aonix, having been one of the early adovcates (in its various
incarnations)
of commercializing Ada, has concluded that those efforts were so unsuccessful
that any further effort is not warranted.   It is sad when disenchantment seeps
into
the management pool and pollutes the well of enthusiasm that once ran clear and
deep in a company dedicated to success with its product.   Aonix still has good
products; products that need development and improvement, but still good.  They
also need someone in charge of Ada who has the energy and commitment to
become visible to the Ada community, and to the software community at large, and
make the case for their product without apology.   It is a sad situation when
we, the Ada advocates, have no idea who is leading the charge at one of the most
important Ada companies.   Where is that person hiding?

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