Re: Windows CE?

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

The interesting thing is that if there really are a lot of "hobbyists" for a
particular segment (Like Windows CE) and that the hobbyists are interested
in using Ada, then this has a way of working its way into more "commercial"
endeavors. You're right that they'll want something easy to use and
inexpensive. One of the problems that Gnat has is that there isn't anybody
attempting to serve the "hobbyist" market directly. Sure, we get the
benefits of what ACT releases and what can be found on the net and so on. It
might be nice though to get some level of products/services for a few bucks
that aren't available from what one can scrounge on their own.

There's nothing wrong with a little market research before launching a
product though. A company should attempt to determine what sort of demand is
out there for a given product before committing to a new development.
However, I think it is a little short sighted to simply wait for some number
of people to come asking for a product - that only identifies extremely
obvious needs. Its probably wiser to get out in front of the issue and
define the next generation of products & try to discover which of those are
likely to be good sellers.

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/


"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <rleif@rleif.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1001142084.4963.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
>
> I might note that the number of "hobbyists" is potentially large and could
> be a source of revenue. However, I suspect that a broad Ada market will
> require extremely user friendly tools. I also strongly believe that the
> actual core of Ada is inherently easier that that of its competitors:
Java,
> C, C++, and BASIC.
>