Re: ObjectAda 7.2.2 and VB6 DLLs

[dave.wood@aonix.com]

I hate to be contrarian, but some of the perceptions here are just
that: perceptions not necessarily based in reality.

> each time Aonix is sending out some news it is far more
> oriented toward Java or C++ than Ada

For example, I can assure comp.lang.ada that exactly 0% of Aonix news
is oriented toward C++, other that where we might discuss that C++ is
an abomination to be avoided. Our last newsletter had 2 articles
addressing Ada and 5 addressing Java, but the one before that had 7
articles addressing Ada and 4 addressing Java, thus an even split over
the larger sample size. This evenness is not by plan, nor are any
decisions made out of "fear" of talking about Ada. We publish whatever
news happens to be available at the time, nothing more.

In terms of press releases, we tend to be about evenly split as well.
For example, as can be seen on our web site, thus far in 2007 we have
produced 7 press releases specific to Ada, 6 specific to Java, and 3
that were non-specific.

I don't know how to respond to an anecdote about someone saying "there
is a single player on Ada and
we can't risk going this way". It is demonstrably false that there is
only one Ada player, given that Aonix, DDC-I, Green Hills, and IBM/
Rational continue to sell Ada products. Granted, none of those
companies are 100% dedicated to Ada only, but that seems an extreme
and insupportable requirement. Further, Ada has a very substantial, co-
dominant presence on the web sites and trade show booths of two of
those companies. (However, of course it is possible in a given
anecdote that there is only one player for a particular off-the-shelf
platform combination.)

Now, I'm not going to lie to you and say that we're not proud to be
promoting our Java products. They are truly excellent products, far
and away best-in-class, that represent tremendous differentiating
value for Aonix. We're proud to promote them and will continue to do
so, vigorously. There is some theoretical market overlap with Ada, but
for the most part, the Ada and Java product lines are appealing to
different audiences. Promoting one does not hurt the other. Typically,
the customer is either choosing between Ada and C, or between Java and
C, or between multiple Ada vendors, or between multiple Java vendors.
Offhand, I don't know that we've ever yet run into anyone who was
trying to decide between Ada and Java.

I offer here the concluding paragraphs from an article in our May
newsletter, which I think are relevant to this discussion:

"Truthfully, our Ada and Java solutions share a similar story: safe,
predictable, reliable, scalable, modular, error-resistant, and highly
productive tools. We won't bother to argue which language is better -
we prefer to let the customer make that judgment. Our job is to inform
our customers about our offerings, not to be language evangelists.
Evangelism is best left to independent voices.

"My message is this: Java is not the enemy of Ada. I think it can be
agreed that C/C++ is the common enemy of everyone interested in
sustainable growth in software complexity. C/C++ does for software
what oxidation does for raw iron: makes it unsuitable for complex,
reliable, and long-lived applications. We believe the industry wins
every time a design choice is made for Ada or Java rather than C/C++,
and that's what we're all about."

Dave Wood, VP Marketing, Aonix
dave.w...@aonix.com

On Dec 8, 12:20 am, Pascal Obry <pas...@obry.net> wrote:
> Dave,
>
> Nothing personal but I kind of agree with Richard. I'm also on the
> mailing-list and each time Aonix is sending out some news it is far more
> oriented toward Java or C++ than Ada. Sometimes I found even hard to
> know (on flyers, papers) that Aonix has some Ada background. I find this
> sad especially since, as you said, Aonix is still Ada oriented... it
> just looks like to me Aonix "fear" talking about Ada.
>
> You may agree or not with me... The fact is that many times I had
> someone in front of me saying that "there is a single player on Ada and
> we can't risk going this way".
>
> I think, and I have many times said this on comp.lang.ada, it would be
> very nice to hear from you here from time to time. Yes please Ada
> vendors, do not hesitate to "spam" this group with Ada oriented news :)
>
> Pascal.
>
> --
>
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> --| Pascal Obry                           Team-Ada Member
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