Re: [ANNOUNCE] XML/Ada 0.5 released

[Emmanuel Briot <briot@gnat.com>]

[On behalf of Robert Dewar]

Tom Moran asks

<<It would be interesting to hear your former competitor's views on
their reasons for abandoning the Ada compiler business.  In fact, is it
reasonable to call ACT an "Ada vendor" when it does not in fact "vend"
Ada compilers?  Isn't ACT a vendor of support services, specialized for
the GNAT compiler?
>>

Of course we sell Ada compilers. Just like Microsoft, we offer copyrighted,
licensed software together with support. Now it is true that we offer a
considerably less restrictive license, which is good for our customers
in many ways, and we certainly hope that our support is considerably
better than what Microsoft supplies :-)

But the basic business model is the same, if you buy our product you get
a nice box with manuals, CD ROM's and a license agreement. You also
get support included.

Now it is certainly true that our business model is MUCH more oriented to
giving high level support, but the fundamental model here is the same as
any other software business. Tom Moran's characterization definitely does
not correspond to our business model!

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies

P.S. I do not know of other vendors "abandoning" the Ada business. Far from
it, all the ARA vendors report increasing business in the Ada market. What
distinguishes Ada Core Technologies is that we are, as far as I know, the
only Ada compiler vendor whose primary business is in the Ada market (and
I am happy to report that we can pay our bills just fine :-)