Re: Advice on selling Ada to a C shop

[Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com>]

On 20 Cze, 01:01, use...@scriptoriumdesigns.com wrote:

> So, what points would you emphasize to each (manager, programmers) to
> make the Ada sale?

Contrary to what was already said in this thread, I would advice *not*
to do it via comparisons of little code examples. It is relatively
easy to write correct C program of small size and therefore there will
be no visible problem that Ada might possibly solve. Also, since the C
syntax is "lighter" visually, it will be taken as a proof that C is
actually more readable.
Don't laugh here, we're talking about simple programs and people who
are already used to C. Hello World in C *is* more readable to them
than Hello World in Ada, no matter what you're going to say about
maintainability of packages. It is just impossible to sell large scale
features with small scale examples.

I think that the only way to sell Ada in a C shop is to forget about
source code altogether and instead refer to the costs of whole
production cycle. If you do not have any data points internally (and
you don't), refer to others. I find John McCormick's student project
statistics particularly relevant.

Last but not least - there is a difference between C and C++ and there
is a difference between respective communities as well, even if it's
usually forgotten on this group. If your fellows are "real C
programmes", you're doomed and forget about selling Ada to them - they
will just don't see the point, ever. Just forget. But if they are C++
programmers and they already understand the importance of large-scale
constructs like namespaces, object-orientation, encapsulation,
abstraction, design patterns, controlled memory usage, and so on, then
this is where you can start your pitch, because they will already
understand what you're talking about and most importantly, they
already feel the need for such things.

And don't forget to highlight (repeatedly!) that Ada can link to C and
C++ libraries, because this argument shows that the transition can be
smoother and that some existing investments can be preserved. This is
actually the reason for why the transition from C or C++ to Ada makes
much more business sense than the transition from C++ to Java, even
though sheeple will usually go for the latter.

Oh, yes - don't despair if you fail. I think it usually takes more
than one iteration...

--
Maciej Sobczak * http://www.inspirel.com

YAMI4 - Messaging Solution for Distributed Systems
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