Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly new in ada programing

[tmoran@bix.com]

>If ACT were to inflate their price sufficiently high, and I noticed that
>a lot of people are willing to pay that high price, then I would quit my
>job at Averstar, and start a business that undercuts ACT's price.  I
>could do that because the sources are available (and, oh by the way,
>they are quite well commented).  Anybody who knows something about
>compilers could do the same.

  Exactly.  When you decide whether or not to quit your job and start
a business supporting GNAT, you must take into account that a lot of
other people could/would also do it.  Once an ACT customer decided ACT
was too expensive, they would look at *all* the other folks offering
support.  They'd also look again at all the competing compiler
vendors.  You would have to charge not too much more than your
cheapest believable competitor, and of course substantially less than
ACT, the known quantity (who could, of course, cut their prices, or
introduce multiple levels of support to entice the stingy).  You have
to devote up front time and money to becoming *very* familiar with
GNAT and to advertising your existence and competence, and hope that a
sufficient revenue stream over the years will follow.  This is quite a
bit of risk, with limited possibilities of gain, and a lot of
potential ACT competitors would decide (have decided?) to keep their
day job.
  Yes, ACT is limited in how high they could inflate prices, but even
with open source, not a lot of believable competitors (zero so far)
are easily going to spring up.  Are there a lot of competitors to
other companies pursuing the same business plan?