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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,7bcba1db9ed24fa7 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-10 07:44:10 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!diablo.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!news-hub.cableinet.net!blueyonder!psiuk-p2!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Death by analogy Part 2 (was Re: is ada dead?) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 09:59:09 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9if1nf$i1d$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <3B460DA9.C2965042@ix.netcom.com> <9ff447f2.0107061757.34ca0723@posting.google.com> <3b47806a_4@news3.prserv.net> <3b48d27d_4@news3.prserv.net> <3B49C9A3.FB4EF7C1@west.raytheon.com> <3B49D87C.6B349412@PublicPropertySoftware.com> <3B4A0B87.B166655D@lmco.com> <3B4A2B3E.CD91C5DD@PublicPropertySoftware.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 994773551 18477 136.170.200.133 (10 Jul 2001 13:59:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Jul 2001 13:59:11 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:9718 Date: 2001-07-10T13:59:11+00:00 List-Id: A thing is worth only what you can get someone to pay you for it. People sometimes get the idea that the laws of Supply and Demand are irrational or something that ought to be ignored. (Nurses and schoolteachers do such valuable work. Why don't we pay them what we pay basketball stars?) Supply and demand - while not exactly Gas Laws, might just as well be. Nobody has ever successfully violated them for very long. (If there were only five nurses in the whole world, we'd probably pay them what we pay Michael Jordan.) The "Value" of Ada is what you can get someone to pay you for it. One branch of calculations might show an economic benefit that would seem to justify a really high price tag, but a) people have substitutes and b) not everything that they value is figured into the calculations. Sometimes people are buying "cheap" because long term considerations just aren't important to them. (Suppose I'm a garage startup evaluating a $100,000 Ada compiler that only runs on a $250,000 computer - not far from where things were back in the early days of Ada83. Someone else offers me a C compiler for a PC free of charge. Are the long term savings of Ada worth it to me? Or maybe I'm building products that I know are going to be out of date in 12 months and that I'm *never* going to maintain them after initial release. Time to market may be my cost driver. Will I buy an expensive Ada compiler over an inexpensive C++ compiler?) Of course, I would probably contend that most of this is moot. There *are* inexpensive and reasonable quality Ada compilers out there that are suitable for a whole range of development efforts. Cost can't be what is stopping people from going there. I'd suspect the issue is more one of a) built in prejudices of the people making language selections and b) lack of competitive toolsets. Part A we can hope to deal with only through education and perhaps bringing in a new generation of software engineers with different prejudices. Part B we can hope to deal with by examining what people are using to develop in other languages and duplicate++ what is available to them there. None of this comes easy. :-) 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/ "Al Christians" wrote in message news:3B4A2B3E.CD91C5DD@PublicPropertySoftware.com... > advantages. What is the value of food, water, or air? Aren't we glad > that no one expects us to pay for these things what they are worth? >