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: 2002-08-23 02:29:56 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!uio.no!newsfeed.song.fi!newsfeed.kolumbus.fi!not-for-mail From: "Juha Valimaki" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board? Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 12:29:57 +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 1030094995 5638 62.248.240.231 (23 Aug 2002 09:29:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@kolumbus.fi NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:29:55 +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:28335 Date: 2002-08-23T12:29:57+03:00 List-Id: "Marin D. Condic" wrote in message news:ak2q68$mlr$1@nh.pace.co.uk... > > 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. > Yes, I agree with you. It's just shame that sometimes all users don't fit in the same business model. The two bad things I see in ACT business model is that (1) it makes it hard for other companies to offer cheap, but not free, Ada tools and (2) it discriminates small development teams. Even hobbyist people are willing to pay money for software. It may not be a large sum for individual users, but if there are enough such users it may be possible. Because of the current situation competing against high quality product that is free would be hard. I have a feeling that my view of the siuation may seem too black and white for many. Hobby users surely take free stuff happily and maybe also the small companies would be happy to use free tools, but these companies just don't exist because Ada isn't interesting enough? The ACT model seems ok for larger companies and I think the price also isn't too bad for a large company with only one target platform, but their model excludes and discriminates small teams. I am sure their support is extremely good, but it's hard to imagine how I would alone get enough advice from them to justify the cost (especially if I need binaries for N platforms). I am hoping for alternatives because of my own situation and because I believe there are other small development teams that can't affort the premium, can't find alternative tools and so simply choose some other language. I already changed plans about my product so that I don't necessarily need Mac or SGI platforms and I also invested in ObjectAda. I still have the option to use GCC 3.1 or the GNAT public edition, if needed, but I would not like to depend on something that I can't financially support (in my small way). (Mac would have been risk anyway as it's not officially supported by any company). I think I have said enough questionable/speculative things about ACT/GNAT, especially when I don't know the whole history of ACT/GNAT, so I will be mostly in listening mode in the future about the subject. I still welcome any company that wants to offer high quality Ada tools for small development teams and hobby users on any platform! Juha P.S. I would like to thank people who have made the Mac port of GNAT. When I say "Mac would be a risk" I don't mean I don't trust the work you have done, I just prefer to pay for tools so I can say "fix this bug or I will not buy from you again" :-) P.S.II Paying for tools is not always necessary, there certainly are situations where some deep pocket institution feels it's important to provide free tools and they are even targeting users like me. (GCC C++ on Linux & Mac, Java, ...)