Re: Ichbiah's letter to Anderson: Here it is

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

>	It continually amazes me on the lack of interest by the Mandated
>>world to spend any of its own money promoting Ada outside the Mandated
>>world.  The assumption, I guess, is that everyone outside the Mandated
>>world is going to beat the door down to get to Ada9X.
>

>You will find that as Ada 9X transitions from vaporware to software, 
>the level of marketing by the Ada 9X project to the 
>non-mandated, non-government world will increase
>dramatically.  Most people out there shopping at Object World,
>OOPSLA, etc., are looking for a solution that they can test-drive
>now, and implement in the next year or so.  Until we have some
>reasonably robust implementations of Ada 9X that potential
>users can get quickly, we are just blowing smoke and potentially 
>wasting our marketing dollars.

This is still an unacceptable response from people troughing tax dollars.
As I pointed out in an earlier posting, in four years of the existence
of the commercial magazine "Embedded Systems Programming" there was not
one ad from Intermetrics concerning Ada, while every month there was one
full page ad (sometimes two) publicizing your C products.  Thus, Tucker,
I do not take seriously anything you say about marketing Ada9X.  You (as
part of Intermetrics) had your chance with Ada83, a good language for
embedded systems programming, and did absolutely nothing.  Its a decent
language (with or without extensions) for object oriented programming
(according to a large amount of public posturing over the years), and you
and most others refused to push Ada in your commercial advertising.

     Waiting for Ada9X is too late, the windows of opportunity will be
all shut, as more articles about problems with Ada projects (STANFINS,
FAA, RCAS [probably]) hit the press, while glowing stories about Smalltalk
and C/C++ are there for contrast.  Given that Ada83 is a pretty good
language is, there is no excuse for all those in the Mandated world not to
be pushing it as much as possible, if nothing else, for the practice of
fostering Ada.

     But I see nothing where it involves spending your own money.  Please
explain why not once in four years, Intermetrics did not place a single
ad mentioning its Ada capabilities in Embedded Systems Programming.
Was it embarassment for being associated with Ada?  Was it the realization
that Ada can't be profitably marketed outside the Mandated world, which
does not have captive markets that can be charged exorbitant compiler
prices?  Was it that Intermetrics management figured that commercial Ada
only has a negative return on investment?  

    Not that Intermetrics is alone in this hypocrisy.  All I know is that
the company with the best record for marketing Ada outside the commercial
world, Alsys, through its leader, Jean Ichbiah has expressed the most
reservations about the marketability of Ada9X.  I question the agenda of
any representatives of Intermetrics on the Ada9X effort - the company's
prior history makes it suspect in the future success of Ada.

    In fact, given the past dismal performance of the Mandated world in
pushing Ada commercializing, one could cynically propose that some on the
Ada9X effort are developing an Ada9X that will keep its installed, captive
market effort with improvements that address the limited needs of the
Mandated world but provide little in the way of marketing advantages in
the non-Mandated world.  This way the captive market is kept, allowing the
continual charging of compiler prices out of sync with the free markets.
"We tried to make a more marketable Ada but people just didn't give us
a chance" - I can hear the future moaning and wailing.
Fortunately, I am not a cynic, so I won't propose such a viewpoint.

     Much like IBM has continually refused to include Ada in its commercial
product line advertising and marketing, Intermetrics refusal to advertise
its Ada product and services says much more about their true beliefs about
Ada than the endless public posturing.  Stop taking tax dollars to profess
your love for Ada and do whatever you want.

Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimization
-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178