Re: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board?

["Marin D. Condic" <not.valid@acm.org>]

"Juha Valimaki" <juha.valimaki@xdsloy.com> wrote in message
news:ak21k5$lfj$1@phys-news1.kolumbus.fi...
>
> 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 (?))
>

But then they would likely be canibalizing their existing business. Do you
think that perhaps there might be companies out there reasoning like this:
"I need an Ada compiler and I need support in the form of regular updates
and bug fixes. I don't really need telephone support or rapid turn around on
bug reports, but I really need at least the full, latest&greatest package
with updates. The only way I can get this is with ACT's premium support
package, so I cough up the cash." That pays the freight to keep ACT's head
above water and development of Gnat actively going on.

Now suppose there were a lower tier product out there from ACT. Might the
reasoning be this: "Let some other company pay the premium support package.
I don't really need telephone support or rapid turn around on bug reports.
I'll just take the monthly or quarterly updates & bug fixes that I get with
the low end package..." Pretty soon some big sector of the market has
dropped their premium support contracts for economy packages and there's not
enough money coming in to keep ACT alive. What happens to Gnat at that
point?

There is a lot more that goes into effective business decision making than
just guessing that someone will buy a product at a given price. You have to
do some strategic analysis of the market to base your business on a
sustainable model.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com

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