Vendors/contractors ashamed of Ada?

[van-bc!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!world!srctran@ucbvax. Berkeley.EDU (Gregory Aharonian)]

   One of the main rules of running a software company in the real world is
get all of the PR you can.  Pester editors to death, get friendly writers to
write case stories involving your product, pull whatever stunts get attention,
pester editors to death, bribe their secretaries, whatever it takes, just
get your product mentioned in journals and magazines as much as possible.
You can't wait for the editors to call - they rarely do, no matter how great
your product is.  If you believe in your product, you push, push, push.

    The reason I mention this in general is that I rarely see Ada mentioned
anywhere outside the defense media community in any form. Editors I know
say they are rarely if ever contacted by the Ada vendors or the defense
community.  The reason I mention this in particular is that the latest
issue of Computerworld, front page, has a cover story on one company adopting
object oriented technology, and their struggles and gains using C++.  A
sidebar to the article discusses a DOE scientist developing a Army battle
simulation using Smalltalk.  These are not isolated stories, but typical of
the stories about object oriented programming, CASE, and every language but
Ada.  The vast bulk of the commercial world reading these journals and 
magazines won't even get a chance to dismiss Ada - they never hear about it.
Computerworld, Information Week, MidRange Systems, Computer Design, Embedded
Systems, Computer Language, Unix World, Electronic Engineering Times, CIO,
the list goes on, as does the absence of Ada and Ada success stories.  Even
the comp.software-eng area on USENET, a great place to plug your latest
CASE stuff for free, has an Ada quietness.  CASEWORLD - no Ada presence.
Downsizing and reengineering conferences and seminars - no Ada presence.

     What is it? Are the Ada vendors and the DoD ashamed of Ada?  Why are
they so passive about advocating a supposedly superior language?  For the
DoD to realize the anticipated gains that Ada provides, it will need broader
free market acceptance of Ada.  However it will require marketing expertise
beyond what the DoD and its contractors have, have experienced, or care to do
without getting more money from the government.

Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimization
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Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178