Re: Is Ada likely to survive ?

[jsa@alexandria.organon.com (Jon S Anthony)]

In article <5r445r$8au@drn.zippo.com> Nasser writes:

> >Yes, it is easy to hire a C/C++/Java 1 day wonder.  And cheaply too.
> >Someone who was flipping burgers a week before, got C/C++/Java for
> >dummies or C/C++/Java in 5 days and is, voila', now a programmer who
> >"knows" it.
> >
> 
> I am not sure about the "cheap" part. Java programmers with less
> than one year exp. can ask for $80-$100/hr, and many get close to
> that. It is the latest fashion as you know, even though many might
> have no clue about design and software engineering, but no one
> cares, since the ones hiring most likely also have no clue.

If you are talking about a contractor, those rates sound plausible.
But then, such people had better be pretty darn capable and quite
experienced.  Someone heavily steeped in Java from the start of 1.0.2
could probably get something like that as a contractor.  Then again,
these rates are pretty typical of a highly qualified C programmer as
well.

If you are talking about the 1 day wonders, there is no way that they
will be making those rates - at least not for more than couple of
weeks or so, after which they will be found out and dumped.


> As far as the pay rate for C++ vs. Ada, I notice that C/C++
> programmers make more than Ada programmers. you see, goverment and
> defense companies salaries (which is where Ada is used in the US at
> least) are lower than private/commerical compnaies.

Possible.  But that's not what I've seen.  This is more a case of
supply and demand (as Robert has pointed out).  Since there are hordes
of C hackers out there, if you just need a "programmer", you can get
one cheap.  Someone who is a true C++ "guru" can demand a _lot_ and
get it as a) such people are nearly non-existent and b) you need such
a person to make anything beyond a "hello world" level C++ project
fly.


> >Here's my take: If you want to use Ada - use it.  Don't worry about
> >whether it's going "to be around" or something.  That's not an issue.
> >If you don't want to use it, don't.
> >
> 
> Agree. good advice. one should not always follow the crowd, if we all
> did, then we'll probably be still cooking our food over a fire under
> open sky in some forest somewhere. (humm.. come to think of it, that does 
> not sound that bad :)

;-), How's that saying go, "We shoulda stopped at fire"....


/Jon
-- 
Jon Anthony
OMI, Belmont, MA 02178
617.484.3383
"Nightmares - Ha!  The way my life's been going lately,
 Who'd notice?"  -- Londo Mollari