Re: Ada Compiler Pricing (was Re: Hijacking a Thread was RE: New Ada compiler for .NET)

["AG" <ang@xtra.co.nz>]

"John English" <je@brighton.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:3E22B217.FA0DB29@brighton.ac.uk...

> Publishers have cut back on the number of Ada books they publish
> because there isn't as big a market as there is from books on e.g.
> Java. Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me...

Mind you, it's not as simple as that. Some years ago
when the LRM/ARM/Rationale was [first?] published
by Springer-Verlag I was looking to buy the whole set.
One of the largest techinical bookshops around here
had trouble even finding a person who knew what
I'm talking about.

When they finally did, they quoted such an outrageous
price for the books that, even in those early days of
the internet, it would be several times cheaper to order
in direct from the publisher including postage, taxes
and everything.

I finally got the best deal I could find from a certain
on-line book shop. Even so, I had to point out that
the books they listed as "available next quarter" had
been available for some months. At least, whoever
handled that request brought the books on line soon
enough (and I even got a discount for pointing that
out, which is always a good thing :-)

But, looks like I know of at least one case where
published book(s) availability had no significant
impact on anything, unless you really knew what you
are looking for ...