Re: Ada's Slide To Oblivion ...

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

In my mind, the problem comes down to marketing. All of us here know and
pretty much agree on the reasons why Ada is technically superior. We can
even make a pretty good business case in some areas as to why Ada makes more
sense economically. We can even get some acquiescence on the part of many
C/C++/Java programmers that Ada is superior in some ways - maybe even in
most ways. So why is the choice going over to C/C++/Java instead of Ada?

Clearly, Ada is not providing *something* the customer wants. Or if it
provides it, it isn't obvious or it isn't the thing we are touting. Many of
us have theorized about it, but a lot of that is just educated guesses. We
suggest answers, but we lack the coordinated effort to do much about it.

To rehash the past a bit - had the DoD looked at Ada less as something to be
mandated and more as a product that needed to be sold, things might have
gone differently. If Ada had been launched by Micro$oft instead of DoD,
there would have been a coordinated media blitz that would have made Ada the
household buzzword and hot topic in the computer press. But nobody schmoozed
the media or spent money on magazine ads, press junkets, television
spectacles, etc.

Could it be turned around? I think so - but it wouldn't be easy. If Ada
still had a large institutional backer like the DoD, it would make sense to
hire a marketing company to a) research what the market wants, b) figure out
what Ada has - or could be made to have - that addresses that demand and c)
design a marketing campaign that would get the word out effectively. Lacking
the big institutional backer, it might still be possible to get the
marketing research done, but it needs to be done by people with expertise in
this area. Maybe a way could be figured out to get that information under
the umbrella of SIGAda or some other interested group? A published marketing
study with a recommended strategy might serve to give Ada proponents a focus
with which they might be more effective?

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Richard Riehle" <richard@adaworks.com> wrote in message
news:3C5EC996.80428514@adaworks.com...
>
> So, even as we hear them recite the refrain, "Ada is probably a better
language,"
> we hear also the bumper sticker slogan, "It can be done as well in C++."
>