Re: Computer Weekly survey: Ada does well again

["Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com>]

The relevant quote is:

===============================================
The other top 25 skill to show growth relative to the first quarter of 2000
is Ada, which is enjoying the greatest popularity it has ever known. It
featured in 530 ads this time, placing it 15th.
================================================

That's an interesting number - I wish we had information about this for the
US - not just the UK. I'd suspect that Ada is doing better in the UK than in
the US - but that's gut reaction, not data. But of course if Ada usage
expands anywhere, that is a good thing because it is likely to spill over
into other markets eventually.

And then:

==============================================
None of the Ada requirement came from the public sector. Software houses
accounted for well over a third of the Ada opportunities, while one in 10 of
these jobs was offered by a computer supplier - in this sector league table
Ada lies third, behind only C and C++.
==============================================

Its nice to know Ada is doing so well outside of government circles. Maybe
it is an example of "Military Intelligence"? As the military abandons Ada to
start trend-following, the private sector starts "discovering" Ada.

Not sure what they mean by "Software Houses". Would that be vendors such as
Microsoft who are building products for sale or would that be companies
providing some form of software services to non-computer-businesses? What is
a "Software House"? What do they do? How big are they on average? And what
are they specifically doing with Ada?

Similarly, what is meant by "computer supplier"? And why would they want Ada
programmers? Would we be talking about a computer manufacturer like IBM or
Compaq? And if so, what would they be doing with Ada?

=================================================
Among other industries, Ada is most in demand in the engineering sector,
which again accounts for one in 10 of the jobs on offer. Here also Ada is in
third place, behind C and C++ again. Engineering companies are also keen on
Pascal and account for fully a half of all demand for this language.
=================================================

That makes sense. In engineering applications, the emphasis is not so
heavily skewed towards time-to-market where the language with the spiffiest
development kit & accesories to leverage make the language a winner. In the
engineering realm, one is more apt to be concentrating on a central core of
code that is complex, has to work properly, and will stick around for a good
long time. GUI building, databases, etc. (while they are used and are
important) do not become the focal point, so Ada's relative lack of
development accessories doesn't hurt it so much. Its benefits get to shine.

I think that suggests where to focus the Ada marketing effort.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/

"Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei.jensen@kvaerner.com> wrote in message
news:9e5d32$2qf4@news.kvaerner.com...
> The article can be found at the bottom of
> http://www.cw360.com/article&rd=&i=&ard=101919
>
> Greetings,
>
>
>