Re: The older you are the stupider you are?

[brbarkstrom@gmail.com]

On Monday, November 3, 2014 9:07:09 PM UTC-5, David Botton wrote:
> (I try not to cross post to much, so if you saw this on Linked'In sorry)
> 
> I recall as I was getting older that despite a great reputation and fantastic portfolio of small to mid size business software projects, the average client was looking at the grey hairs in my beard and wondering if I was going to be able to code something "innovative" for his business?
> 
> (I often joke that is one of the reasons I became a doctor of oriental medicine, in medicine the older I get the wiser I am in the eyes of the patients)
> 
> Ada for small to mid size business consulting actually has the power to break the stereo type. I speak from 12 years of experience using Ada for business consulting and while Ada is not used in the majority of my projects, a good number of my projects both desktop and web have been written partly or entirely in Ada.
> 
> 1) Ada carries with it a prestige. "I am going to code you a system in the same language used for Missiles and Fighter planes." - Wow cool
> 
> 2) "You know when you want a system that is going to do exactly what you want, best if you can read for yourself what I am doing, here have a look at this code..." - I can understand that, you make a great point! (I always make sure to carry some garbage C and JS code.. good luck, the developers that wrote that stuff can't even read it)
> 
> 3) "If you find a developer that codes in Ada you know you have a pro, not some kid putting back doors to blackmail you later " - Makes sense
> 
> 4) "I choose the best tool for the job and anyone with my experience level can tell you it is the design not the language that matters and the best job for your large system is Ada." - You have the experience
> 
> 5) "Ada was once mandated for use because it was a solid design choice by engineers, not some internet home-brew project like C++ or a Mickey mouse toy scripting language like Java Script, your project needs power, stability and a solid 30 year old language reviewed and updated last in 2012" (I bet you didn't know the mandate was a selling point, huh :)
> 
> Gnoga's framework brings what you need to code for the cloud in Ada faster and easier than with current web technologies in any other language and lets you leverage the JS frameworks existing to bringing your business apps the "Sexy" they need to close the deal.
> 
> Ada is the winning choice for Small to Mid Size Business Software. Time is coming to let them know it!
> 
> David Botton

Another strategy might be to adopt a "good enough for practical application"
strategy without pursuing a "perfect" solution.  In this alternative strategy,
what's needed are tools that provide competitive advantage to small to medium
sized businesses where Ada should provide some key advantages:
1.  Faster development time
2.  Lower cost of maintaining the system over lifetimes of one to three years

In this case, it might make sense to choose one of the standard Linux 
distributions and use their gcc (and related) packages.  cgi-bin might work
in that case - it has the advantage of being compiled.  The key to making 
this a successful business strategy is probably going to be standardizing
the development framework and selecting appropriate niche markets for starting
out.  It doesn't make sense to compete directly with AdaCore's competitive
advantage in life-critical systems.  Rather, it will be necessary to demonstrate
Ada advantages in agile development, on-time delivery, service guarantees,
and lower maintenance cost (over a one to three-year lifecycle).

Bruce B.