From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9b30240b5a381bbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-21 23:50:47 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!newsfeed.kolumbus.fi!not-for-mail From: "Juha Valimaki" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board? Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 09:50:48 +0300 Organization: Elisa Internet customer Message-ID: References: <5ee5b646.0208191613.21291d5@posting.google.com> <7vptwccqfs.fsf@vlinux.voxelvision.no> <7vlm70cqcz.fsf@vlinux.voxelvision.no> <5ee5b646.0208211132.6c283ef0@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ua231d43hel.dial.kolumbus.fi X-Trace: phys-news1.kolumbus.fi 1029999047 22003 62.248.240.231 (22 Aug 2002 06:50:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@kolumbus.fi NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 06:50:47 +0000 (UTC) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28303 Date: 2002-08-22T09:50:48+03:00 List-Id: "Robert Dewar" wrote in message news:5ee5b646.0208211132.6c283ef0@posting.google.com... > Indeed we are not trying to "penetrate the mass market". That's not our > business area. Our expertise is in providing high level support from high > level competent engineers. We don't see that as scaling to a mass market. > > The world seems full of people who are happy to spend lots > of energy in trying to get Ada Core to move in that direction, but sadly > none of these people seem willing to spend their own energy persuing a > market that they are sure we are missing! > > Robert Dewar > Ada Core Techonologies Robert, I think you could say I am one person trying to push Ada to mass market. I understand it's nobody's business to say what ACT should do, but I also hope you see why people are asking ACT to do something: GNAT simply seems so close to "perfect" product for many tasks, if just there was business interest. I think many people feel GNAT is property of ACT (no matter what the copyright says). People simply expect ACT to do something (It's not any fault of ACT, but just the way things are). Nothing may happen until ACT does something and same time the free version version makes it harder for other companies to target the low-end market. For not-so-realtime and not-so-high-reliability applications Ada sure has advantages over C++/Java, but the advantage is not large enough to pay for expensive tools/support. I still haven't decided if Ada really is worth all the effort... I mean, Ada sure has nice qualities and I am sure choosing Ada would make me more productive, but the tool/support costs are so high I really have to calculate if I will gain something. (Money, time and productivity are of course related here: with money I can buy productivity and to get money I have to work to get income and so productivity will decrease.) The situation would be very different if there was "GNAT like" tool available for, lets say, 2000 USD or less for each major platform. No project/Ada support, just binaries, manuals and bug fixes. That would be an easy choice! Even better if the company developing that tool said they are actually interested in supporting "mass market" use of Ada... (To actually get the "mass market" there would have to be IMO more visibility for cool Ada projects and maybe 1000 USD price tag (?)) Juha P.S. On March 2002 Alias|Wavefront lowered the price of their Maya animation tool for $7500 to $1999, effectively transforming their company from premium high-end to mass market. I am not suggesting Ada companies should do the same and I not even sure if the move was good, but it shows the world is changing. P.S.II. Games are these days quite heavy in (soft) real time activities and multitasking. I personally think Ada would be very well suited for games... if just someone had the muscle to create/sell interesting tools for game programmers!