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=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 13 May 93 20:20:19 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!linus!linus.mitre.org!linus!sdl@ucbvax.Berke ley.EDU (Steven D. Litvintchouk) Subject: Re: Alsys, how insignificant is 18,000? Message-ID: List-Id: In article srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes: > Recently I read some very nice promotional literature from Alsys, which > I have to admit does the best job of marketing Ada (for example, the just got > a mention in the May 1993 issue of Computer Design). > > However, in their literature, they include one information that is quite > interesting. At one point, they state: > > "We have the largest customer base in the Ada industry" > with over 18,000 installations worldwide. > > Great for Alsys, but what does that say about Ada? For example, Microsoft > has sold over 25,000 development kits for its new Windows NT operating > system, C/C++ kits for a four million line C++ operating system. Given > that the equipment and environment needed for Windows NT is as costly as > an Ada development project (minus the excessive documentation costs), and > given that Windows NT is only a small part of the C/C++ world, one can > conclude that Ada use outside the Mandated world is insignificant, a > message reinforced by the actions of Ada compiler vendors to refocus on > C++. I'm troubled by attempting to make engineering/technological decisions based on popularity polls. When I started in the software business, I believed that software development was a skill requiring much training, and therefore wasn't for everybody. Then along came the IBM and other PC's with their BASIC interpreters, and this mass delusion started that anyone who could program anything was indeed a programmer (or even a software engineer). This delusion, of course, has no basis in either logic or fact. According to your logic, MRI scans, organ transplants, and other modern advanced medical technologies would be "dead" because they are clearly more expensive, and far less "popular," than first aid kits and Band Aids. -- Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation 202 Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730-1420 Fone: (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mitre.org UUCP: linus!sdl