Re: How many different processors do you use?

[markh@usai.asiainfo.com]

Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:
: In article <ugnqj7.8e.ln@bigbird.sw.asiainfo.com>,
:   markh@usai.asiainfo.com wrote:
:> Everett M. Greene <mojaveg@ridgecrest.ca.us> wrote:
:> (talking about Ada)
:> : It took 16 years to produce something which is useful?
:> : And this is after it took 10+ years to get to the `83
:> : product?
:>
:> To be fair, a lot of that time Ada vendors, proponents, etc,
:> were counting on the government to push things forward.
:>
:> Now, it is Ada activists pushing things forward with
:> "real stuff".

: These kind of observations are simply guesses that have nothing
: to do with the reality of the situation. It is amazing to me how
: on CLA people who know very little about the actual history
: make wild guesses and post them as fact.

I'm recounting my actual history of working at Applied
Data Research from 1984-1988.  ADR had a large Federal
division, and we did a lot of work with other vendors
selling to the U.S. Government.

Some of that work was with vendors proposing Ada solutions,
and vendors selling Ada products.  There seemed to be
the common feeling among these vendors that they would
not need to have competetive pricing, since their
products would be required for vendors bidding on
government contracts.

So, a vendor which was charging $2000 per seat (list
price) for a C compiler was at the same time charging
$10,000 per seat for the equivalent Ada system.
You could argue that the Ada system did 5 times more
than the C system, but the impression I got was that
they charged more simply because they felt they could,
and that other vendors would pay since they would
consider it as a necessary cost of doing business
with the government.

I don't deny that there were enthusiastic Ada people around at the time,
it's just there were enough people waiting around for the government gravy
train (via "the mandate") that other languages were able to surpass it
at that time.  Now, things seem to be very much improved.

ObjGnu:  ADR received the very first patent granted
for software.

My philosophical observation:  people depending on a
particular mandate to carry their views forward often
work less hard than other people.  Certain individuals
(such as yourself) excepted, of course.

Cordially,
Mark.

-- 
Mark Harrison                       "Open the floppy disk door, Hal."
AsiaInfo Computer Networks          http://usai.asiainfo.com:8080/
Beijing, China / Santa Clara, CA    markh@usai.asiainfo.com