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-Thread: 103376,f49c8f164340c377 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Current status of Ada? References: <1187726191.464593.16480@r34g2000hsd.googlegroups.com> <1187850312.375316.57440@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com> From: Markus E L Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:13:13 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Some cool user agent (SCUG) Cancel-Lock: sha1:K4wmfbZF5/c+ETo4uOM2kyLiyGE= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 88.72.236.175 X-Trace: news.arcor-ip.de 1187856073 88.72.236.175 (23 Aug 2007 10:01:13 +0200) X-Complaints-To: abuse@arcor-ip.de Path: g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!feeder3.cambrium.nl!feeder2.cambrium.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!193.201.147.87.MISMATCH!news.astraweb.com!border2.a.newsrouter.astraweb.com!xlned.com!feeder1.xlned.com!chloor.box.nl!217.188.199.138.MISMATCH!storethat.news.telefonica.de!telefonica.de!news-fra1.dfn.de!newsfeed.arcor-ip.de!news.arcor-ip.de!not-for-mail Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:1542 Date: 2007-08-23T10:13:13+02:00 List-Id: Harald Korneliussen wrote: > On Aug 22, 2:53 am, "Jeffrey R. Carter" > wrote: > >> And some projects using Ada commercially consider it a competitive >> advantage and keep it secret. > > Are you sure? It seems to me it's in the companies' best interests to > say whether they are using Ada, since Ada developers are tricky to get > hold of. Keeping it secret seems to me both difficult (what do you > write in the job ads?) and counterproductive. Depends what you're offering. If you're offering a program component it might be in your best interest to offer it in a language the customer uses or might want to use (and if your customer works in defense or aerospace that might well be Ada). If you're offering a complete application it depends on the customer: I've ben bidding for projects where the customer then went for getting the thing done in C# (by someone else). I've actually had other projects where the customer didn't care too much (because he'd have to buy maintainance from a third party anyway). I suggest that in the latter case it's often more useful to focus on the properties / features of the system to be developed, not on the implementation technique or the language: That would only serve to confuse the customer (looking up Ada in "the internet" could even give them the impression that they are getting sold a dead end technology and now amount of "arguing" will server to clean up this impression: You won't get the opportunity to argue very much at all). I wouldn't keep the use of Ada secret in this cases, but neither would I try to dilute my sales pitch by introducing the irrelevant question of which technology will be actually used: The important bottom lines are features (including stability, freeness from software defects and this like). It rather depends on the given situation wether commitment to a certain language or development method is a competitive advantage. Just my "two cent". Regards -- Markus