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Date: 2 Aug 93 14:12:25 GMT
From: agate!spool.mu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!world!srctran@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
  (Gregory Aharonian)
Subject: Very strange C++ ad from DDC-I
Message-ID: <CB4y4q.C86@world.std.com>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

    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