From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 7 Sep 93 20:10:39 GMT From: world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: A very successful Ada marketing disaster in Boston Message-ID: List-Id: Last month I coordinated an Ada booth at a local NASA small business show. It was a very successful disaster, though I learned much. I had asked people and companies to donate $50 to help cover booth costs, in return for having their literature displayed. First the good news. I was able to successful coordinate a variety of Ada companies in sponsoring the booth. I would like to thank the following companies/people for donating $50 and their literature for the booth: S.T.O. (me) - Government Source Code Directory Walnut Creek - Ada CDROMs AETECH - Ada compilers and libraries SET Laboratories - Multi-language metric analyzer Silicon Graphics - MP/Ada multiprocessor Ada compiler EVB - Ada Training AdaNet - NASA's Ada repository Mike Feldman - Books and papers on Ada AdaIC - Introductory brochure on Ada According to my records, this is the largest number of Ada companies being displayed at any non-Mandated show in the Boston area in the last ten years, a horrible statistic. I was very disappointed that none of the large Ada companies got involved, none of the Ada9X or STARS contractors were willing to donate $50 to have Ada stuff displayed, no support whatsoever from people receiving all of the Ada money. In the case of AdaIC, who couldn't contribute $50 because of contractual problems, the fee was waived (go talk to ARPA - they seem to know how to throw around money). In return, I hope they lend me their booth display equipment at the next Ada marketing effort. So organizationally, things went fine. Everyone mailed their stuff to me in time, I was able to display it, and for those with lots of leftovers, I mailed back to them their materials. In addition, through the vision and generosity of Walnut Creeks, I am donating their Ada CDROMs used for display to local libraries, including the library ESD uses at Hanscom Air Force Base. So the good news is that when you have a group of people actually interested in Ada, and someone willing to coordinate a joint effort, it is easy to get things done. This is something that should have been done years ago, especially by either SIGADA or ASA, and one more reason to form an Ada Business Council. The bad news was that most of the people attending the show had general interests, many being hardware manufacturers interested in supplying parts to NASA projects. Thus while I passed out lots of Ada material, I could have passed out much more. So while the benefits to the sponsors was probably about the $50 they contributed, I had hoped it would have been better. Given the many C++ booths at the show, it was good though there was some Ada stuff. Also, I received a lot of strange comments about Ada. Some of the small companies doing embedded work for NASA in C has never heard of Ada, which surprised me. Users of CAD systems for NASA work, while not programmers had heard of C/C++, but not Ada. A few graphics designers commented that the Ada literature being distributed could be better laid out, made more eye catching. Many people stopping by the booth did so because their eye caught the stack of CDROMs I had laid out - CDROMs are still enough of a novelty to capture attention and get people to stop at your booths - something for Ada vendors to take advantage. That stack of CDROMs was more useful than all of the literature laid out. On a sad note, Ada is in deep, deep trouble, if one attendee's comments hold true. At one point, a manager from a small networking/simulation company stopped by the booth and spent some time talking. They do simulation work for NASA and maybe for the DoD. After he said that they used C, I asked why and if they had considered Ada. His comments reflect the concerns I've posted to comp.lang.ada that the Mandated world has been ignoring for years, whether or not this person's perceptions are right or wrong. He felt that Ada compilers were too expensive, had a reputation for not allowing rapid prototyping, had few application libraries to link to, little demand from his customers for Ada, there are few qualified programmers to call upon for projects, and to some extent was avoiding Ada because of the many reports in Computerworld and Government Computer News about squabbles over Ada inside the DoD. I described some of Rational's products which met his concerns, and he seemed interested, until I mentioned prices, at which point he said that they were too pricey, given the systems Microsoft and Borland are offering for C++. Right or wrong, this guys perceptions are probably common for many programmers and managers outside the Mandated world. And they won't change until the Mandated world makes an effort to get out there and sell the language. 40 companies at TriAda and 1 or 2 elsewhere is disgraceful, and slowly allows Ada to dieoff. Anyways, thanks to those who help with this effort. To make Ada succeed on its own outside the Mandated World will require many more such efforts. It's a shame all the people with all of the professionalism and vision and money in Ada ten years ago didn't start then. -- ************************************************************************** Greg Aharonian srctran@world.std.com Source Translation & Optimization 617-489-3727 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178