Re: Front Ends (was: Re: Is the "Ada mandate" being reconsidered?)

[Tom Robinson <robinson@gdesystems.com>]

>Dave Wood <dpw@thomsoft.com> wrote:
>>Tom Robinson wrote:
>>
>>>   (3) Buy a product from a vendor that does not have direct support
>>>       for fixing their own front end problems (AdaMagic).
>>
>>Tom,
>>
>>The above referring presumably to TSP's ObjectAda, the statement
>>is flat-out incorrect and the product of mistaken assumptions
>>about the nature of our rights and plans WRT AdaMagic.

I don't believe I ever mentioned ObjectAda, you did.  I should not have even
used AdaMagic as an example.  You are correct in that I don't know "the nature"
of your rights and plans.  I was more referring to the tendency to take a
variety of third party software components, integrate them into a single
box and sell it as a product.  As a customer, if I know I am going to be
content with the product "as is" then this is fine.  However, if I am going
to make demands on the vendor that actually require them to understand and
service the components they ship, then I would be foolish not to try to
understand the level of support they are capable of delivering.  

And this is where my personal *bias* comes in.  I *have a belief* that it
is more difficult for a customer to get problems fixed in third party software.
Why?  There are two ways to *get a fix* in this situation.  Either the vendor
fixes the problem directly or they get the third party to fix the problem.
In case one we (the customers) are relying on the vendor developing expertise
in software that they did not want to spend the money and time to develop.  It 
is most likely that the *expertise* required to provide problem solutions will
be developed as the problems (my problems) are solved.  In case two we are
relying on the selling vendor having a good enough relationship with the
third party vendor to insure that the problems (my problems) are solved and
also to coordinate to provide me with emergency updates.

So I guess (since you brought it up) I would advise customers that
they need to understand the relationships and "nature" of the agreements
that are used to create products that are integrated from multiple sources.
Which really goes back to my original post.  My only point was that there
are multiple types of choices one can make in the Ada 95 market.  As a
customer I need to understand that each of those choices has different
implications on how *I* will do business.

Tom Robinson