Re: Marketing Ada

[srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)]

Mark Breland concludes:

>So...unless a company with an attitude like Borland shows up on the scene,
>don't expect to see *any* Ada marketing hype directed at the masses.

   Unfortunately, things are worse than this, since a fair number of DoD
software policies implicitly assume certain levels of Ada acceptance in
the general marketplace (to provide the DoD with the programmers, tools
and libraries) to meet DoD goals.  With the STANFINS fiasco, having 
someone strongly publicly push for Ada becomes even more important so
that Ada is accepted enough to have the marketplace provide the supply
of programmers, libraries and tools needed to meet DoD software goals.

   Thus it is not just sad that the Ada vendors (as well as the DoD and
contractors like the STARS people) have dropped the Ada marketing ball.
If it gets any worse, it probably will become a mild threat to national
security, as it becomes more difficult for the DoD to meet its software
needs on a diminished budget.

    However, as much of the grapevine that I monitor suspects, there is
a fair chance within the next few years that the DoD will drop the Ada
mandate as unworkable.  When even the outrageously biased and yes-man
Mosemann studies say that Ada currently is only marginally more economical
than C/C++ (read the TRW) section, with C++ catching up, the reality is
probably in C++'s favor, which the generals eventually will be unable to
ignore.

J'accuse.

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