Re: You get what you pay for (not true in software)

[pierson@encore.com (Dan L. Pierson)]

In article <2356@raybed2.msd.ray.com> rgc@raybed2.msd.ray.com (RICK CARLE) writes:
   It was the right decision for its time.  Perhaps now the situation has
   changed a little.  Compilers are plentiful, but they're too expensive for
   many universities.  Maybe now is the right time to revisit the concept of
   a DoD-sponsored cheap compiler.  Sponsor a competitive procurement for
   inexpensive Ada compilers to host on easily available college computers:
   PCs & Macs. ...

There may be a cheaper and more productive alternative to yet another
heavily government financed boondoggle.  Current DoD validation
requirements have the effect of prohibiting free or even cheap
validated compilers because the validation costs can only be born by
relatively large organizations that charge large prices*.

Could a combination of subsidized validation for a few free or low
cost compilers and maybe a small amount of carefully selected grants
help produce the cheap Ada compilers that universities and private
students need?


*I get the feeling from comments about the value of "real commercial
compilers" that some people in this group believe that this is a
feature :-(.  Maybe this view is logical if you believe that only
"real software developers" should use Ada and that "real software
development" can only take place in large, well funded organizations.
I think that such attitudes run directly contrary to the history of
economic growth and innovation in the USA; most real growth and
innovation come from small groups, mostly small businesses.  Making
Ada effectively unavailable to such groups is helpful neither to the
groups nor to our software industry as a whole.

Aside: It's rather odd to find myself, an Ada opponent, supporting the
language this way.  But its basic design is much better than the main
alternative, C, and we badly need to move most of our work from C to
real high level languages just as we finally moved from assembly to C
quite a while ago.  It's a real (expensive!) pity that none of the
language with most of Ada's advantages but without its bulk and
misfeatures seem to have a chance.


--

                                            dan

In real life: Dan Pierson, Encore Computer Corporation, Research
UUCP: {talcott,linus,necis,decvax}!encore!pierson
Internet: pierson@encore.com