Re: Ada's (in)visibility and pricing!

[agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state]

In article <15390@suns5.crosfield.co.uk> pdg@crosfield.co.uk (paul goffin) writ
es:

>   Why hasn't Ada caught on in engineering?  Well one big reason is cost.
>
>   [ deleted ]
>
>   So what did I mean by cost?  Well, apart from the training costs
>   and the cost of setting up development systems that actually used
>   Ada, (New compiler driving scripts, new way of addressing hardware,
>   new way of managing "global variables" - Yes, nasty as they are,
>   you do sometimes have to use global variables in the real world!)
>   there was a nasty shock in the price of the compilers.
>
>   What do I mean by nasty?  Well, we were able to use a FORTRAN
>   compiler on our systems for a cost of $2000 per project.
>   (ie per host processor.)
>
>   The Ada compiler vendors wanted $30 000 PER SEAT.  We even
>   had the vendors charging different prices for the same compiler
>   on different hosts.  ie. A compiler/toolset on a Sun SPARC 1 was
>   $30 000, while on a Sparc 2, the same software was $40 000.


I agree, this is insane.  The Sun SPARC 1 compiler is probably
identical to the Sparc 2 ( and if it is not it should be ).  
When I asked one vendor why they had this pricing arrangement
the said that it was because of the precieved power of the
machine; the compiler was in fact identical.  I asked another
vendor why their VMS compiler was ~$50,000 when their unix
compiler was ~$10,000.  Both of these compilers were cross compilers 
to the same target.  The answer boiled down to people
expect to pay more for a VMS compiler.
 
Can anybody give a rational explaination for these pricing
schemes.  For people who what to use Ada pricing the the 
single biggest problem.


--
pat gioannini
pat@psl.nmsu.edu