Re: IBM Acquires Rational Ada

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

One would think that if IBM bought up Rational, they did so because they a)
thought it would be an important profit center and/or b) wanted to bring
important technology in-house where it could be better utilized and
compliment other products. If "A" is true, then the corporate guys won't
care much if the Rational division sells Ada compilers or grows tangerines -
just bring in the cash. In that case, Ada just needs to be a profitable
product or it deserves to be discontinued. If "B" is the case, then Ada as
one of Rational's products has to be some sort of "complimentary" product
that helps IBM sell its hardware. Here it is not so clear that IBM would
have a big incentive to keep it around since they are almost certainly more
interested in things like Rational Rose.

Still in all, it would make sense for IBM to sell off the compiler portion
to someone else if they weren't interested in it, so someone would likely
continue support. The point is that Ada must have some non-trivial
commercial potential in its own right or it won't really matter what IBM (or
anyone else) does with the compiler technology out there. If Rational is
keeping their product around as an "also ran" technology that has a handful
of followers that they simply want to keep happy, then IBM would be wise to
let it fade away. If Rational has found more than a handful of customers who
are actively buying the compiler, support, etc., then their Ada compiler is
a viable product that IBM would either continue to sell or at least sell off
to someone else.

I doubt this will have much of an impact on the future of Ada in the sense
that whatever happens is more a symptom of what is going on in the overall
industry, rather than a root cause. If Ada is to gain in popularity it has
to demonstrate more than just the availability of several compilers. It
needs to demonstrate measurable performance for the bottom line on corporate
balance sheets. (Lower costs, better quality, faster time to market, etc.)

Personally, I think the key is rapid development. Engineering costs usually
aren't the big drivers in most industries, but getting out the door faster
*is* a major advantage. To that end, better development kits around Ada,
bigger & better libraries and better access to underlying OS capabilities
are going to create development leverage that gets end-products out the
door. Maybe Ada is "A Better Mousetrap" but I think it has mostly gone after
the wrong mouse. Emphasis on standardization, portability and reliability
are all good things and might help push a sale over the edge, but the
industry seems to be willing to sacrifice all that in exchange for the
things that help them get to market faster.

MDC
--
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Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
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Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com> wrote in message
news:3DF2A483.EC512CDF@adaworks.com...
>
> Alas, no hint of what will become of Rational Ada.   If anyone at IBM
> realizes the power of the Rational Ada product, it could be great for
> Ada and for IBM.   I wish I could be optimistic about this.
>
> Richard Riehle
>