Very strange C++ ad from DDC-I

Very strange C++ ad from DDC-I

[Gregory Aharonian]

    It seems the race by Ada compiler vendors to confuse the general public
about Ada is heating up, with a new entrant into the race, DDC-I.  For some
time, I have been complaining about the ads I see from Rational, Telesoft
and Intermetrics plugging their C/C++ products, and never mentioning Ada.
Until now, I firmly had believed that every Ada company, especially those
built with tax dollars, should mention Ada in all of their ads, especially
for CASE tools ads.

    Well, a recent ad from DDC makes me believe there are cases where Ada
companies in their C++ ads should not mention Ada at all, as strange as
that sounds coming from me.  The August 1993 issue of Embedded Systems
Programming, page 24, has an ad from DDC-I that is so strange from an Ada
point of view that I am rendered speechless.  Here's the text for the ad.

	"The hub of any embedded or native real-time C++ application
	should be a true object-oriented, multitasking executive -
	like 1st OBJECT EXEC.  It enhances your productivity and gives
	you all the advantages that complete C++ offers - access 
	to reusable software faster.
	1st OBJECT EXEC from DDC-I (a global leader in Ada compiler
	technology) is object oriented, fully developed from scratch
	in C++ using the object oriented paradigm.  It lets you
	implement real-time designs in C++ compatibly, without the
	problems associated with using a C-based kernel.

	[ followed by more stuff in the same vein, and ordering info]

============================================

    Now when I first saw the header to the ad, I initially thought, great
another ad from an Ada company saying all the things about C++ that they
claim for Ada.  More hypocrisy.  And that why couldn't DDC-I advertise
an Ada executive and convince people to do this stuff in Ada, instead of
C++.  In short, much of what Ada stands for is contradicted in this ad,
an ad from an Ada company, a contradiction which further confuses people
considering a new language.

    And I said to myself, at least they didn't actually mention Ada.  
That is, until I read the text of the ad and saw that they mentioned Ada.
Why brag about being a global leader in compiler technology for the 
"best" object-oriented, multitasking language aroung, Ada, if you are
delivering a product in C++?  This is a very confusing message to send
to people.

    So the one case where Ada shouldn't be mentioned in a C++ ad by an
Ada compiler vendor, and DDC-I mentions the language.   As much as I want
to critique this ad for undermining Ada, they do mention Ada, which helps
Ada and probably hurts DDC-I.  Very strange.

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

Re: Very strange C++ ad from DDC-I

[Jonathan Schilling]

In article <CB4y4q.C86@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
 writes:
>
>  [...]                         The August 1993 issue of Embedded Systems
>Programming, page 24, has an ad from DDC-I that is so strange from an Ada
>point of view that I am rendered speechless.
>
   [shocking ad deleted]	
>
>    Now when I first saw the header to the ad, I initially thought, great
>another ad from an Ada company saying all the things about C++ that they
>claim for Ada.  More hypocrisy.  And that why couldn't DDC-I advertise
>an Ada executive and convince people to do this stuff in Ada, instead of
>C++.  In short, much of what Ada stands for is contradicted in this ad,
>an ad from an Ada company, a contradiction which further confuses people
>considering a new language.

Just for the record, DDC-I *has* placed Ada-only ads in "Embedded
Systems Programming", e.g. February 1991 page 11, August 1991 page 74. 

>    And I said to myself, at least they didn't actually mention Ada.  
>That is, until I read the text of the ad and saw that they mentioned Ada.
>Why brag about being a global leader in compiler technology for the 
>"best" object-oriented, multitasking language aroung, Ada, if you are
>delivering a product in C++?  This is a very confusing message to send
>to people.

Are you confused when General Motors runs an ad that mentions several
types of car?  Does the Sun Express catalog confuse you, because it
has entries for SunPro's compilers for Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, and Ada?
Surely Sun must think one of those languages is the "best"!

DDC-I thinks that Ada is a great language.  There's no such thing as
a "best" language, even if you narrow the domain down to the kinds of
applications that you think Ada and C++ are battling over.  There is
room for both languages, and if a language vendor wants to be in both
businesses, it doesn't mean they're downgrading the business that they
were in first.

-- 
Jonathan Schilling
DDC-I, Inc.
uunet!ddciiny!jls