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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c62a5e526aafd9d4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-09-24 11:11:17 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Richard Riehle Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: The Hobby Lobby was Windows CE? Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:13:59 -0700 Organization: AdaWorks Software Engineering Message-ID: <3BAF77E6.9BDE9102@adaworks.com> References: <9onhgu$9h9$1@nh.pace.co.uk> Reply-To: richard@adaworks.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 9e.fc.c4.21 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 24 Sep 2001 18:10:48 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:13296 Date: 2001-09-24T18:10:48+00:00 List-Id: Caution: This is one of Richard's long and tedious rantings, and is best read, if at all, when there is absolutely nothing else of interest anywhere in your life. Most of you can enjoy far more pleasurable entertainment than you will find in what follows. RR Several people have commented on the virtue of satisfying those who program as "hobbyists" versus those who are working as bona fide professionals doing "real projects." This raises some interesting perspectives on how the software industry develops, evolves, becomes, and achieves. Dr. Dewar is absolutely correct when he notes the importance of a business case for any allocation of corporate resources or funds. Few, except for very large, cash flush, corporations can afford to fritter away their assets on attracting anyone but those who ultimately contribute to the stability and growth of the company. Even those who are blessed with seemingly unlimited cash reserves must husband them wisely, charity being nothing more than a way to add "goodwill" to the balance sheet in many instances. With that in mind, it is not inappropriate to review what happened to the computer industry in the early "Eighties" as a derivation of the hobby lobby. During the 1970's I was a practicing programmer, paid for my work by an employer, but also attending meetings of the local computer hobby club in my community. To many of us, it was clear that a revolution in thinking was gestating, even as some major corporations had no inkling that anyone was pregnant. IBM was certainly caught off balance, at first, although they temporarily regained some momentum. It was, in fact, the hobby lobby, that provoked the sleeping giant, IBM, along with some others to realization of the potential for the new technology. Many of those early hobbyists have gone on to become major forces in our industry. One member of the computer club I attended, Gordon Eubanks, became CEO of Symantec and made many important contributions to the progress of our industry. Hobbyists were among the most important users of the CP/M operating system, an operating system that evolved into MS-DOS in the hands of Tim Patterson, and eventually, after some shenanigans by Microsoft, became the dominant operating system of our industry for a long time. It was the democratization of computing during the 1980's that allowed hobbyists to transform an industry, many promoting themselves from hobbyists to professionals in three easy steps. Even now, that democratization persists as hobbyists purchase compilers, language tools, web building kits, and other products, initially for fun, and later for profit. The best of these hobbyists are motivated, intelligent, and often endowed with a better sense of business development than those we train for professional programming in our computer science schools. One successful businessman was addressing a group of professionals a few years ago, he having built a business from the ground up, transforming his abiding interest into a thriving corporation. He was asked, during the Q&A portion of his address, whether he had a Ph.D. "I have five of them," he replied, "They all work for me." I realize that Robert Dewar, better than many people, understands the importance of these hobbyists in the contemporary world of computing. I believe he and ACT have remained conscious of the importance of this segment of our industry. That is one of the significant contributions he and his colleagues have made. GNAT is, by is very existence, a recognition of the importance of this democratization, the power of the hobby lobby, and the conception of new businesses. What Ada needs, indeed it is already happening, is the dedication of people who are willing to commit their own resources to the creation of products programmed in Ada, for a variety of platforms. Many of these might be hobbyists who will go on to be successful entrepreneurs. It is not likely they will be doing this under the auspices of some company already committed to some other language technology. We are in a unique situation with Ada right now. There are more free and low-cost development tools available than ever before for more platforms than ever before. For Wintel platforms we have the power of CLAW. For others there are other tools, including GtkAda. If you have an idea for a better product, you can easily use Ada to build it. Nearly every commercial product currently on the shrink-wrapped shelves somewhere, has some vulnerability. Find that vulnerability, exploit it, fix it, and transform yourself from hobbyist to entrepreneur. Many years ago, there was a glut of accounting packages on the market. That did not stop someone from inventing Quicken and selling it for a sticker price that was so low no one could afford to ignore it. Now they practically own the market. If you have an idea, a product for Windows CE that you want to program in Ada, and see a benefit for using Ada, my guess is that you can partner with others who have a similar vision and make it happen. In the case of those 1970's hobbyists, they all, with a few exceptions, had as their most important resource, a passion for what they were doing. That passion was the key to their success. That passion fed a revolution. In fact, every revolution is stoked more by the passion of its visionaries than by the proprietors of the status quo. So, I don't expect an established company to risk much of its own resources in pursuit of every flight of fancy. ACT has been more forthcoming on this than many might be, but Robert has a fiduciary repsonsibility to be a little bit conservative. If there is a strong view that a particular product is needed; if there are applications that can be better served with GNAT-CE, then some hobbyist can easily take the source code and build a business on this model. If, on the other hand, we expect someone else to put their money into such an effort, we need to take the time to develop a well-planned business strategy that justifies such an investment. Richard Riehle richard@adaworks.com