Re: Incorporating 9X into Ada courses

[seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman@uunet.uu.net (Michael Feldman)]

OK, folks! Get ready for me to agree with Greg again. Inflammatory stuff
follows in my part of the post. Be warned!

In article <SRCTRAN.93Apr29095738@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory
 Aharonian) writes:
>
[stuff deleted]

>    The reason that Ada compilers cost more is simply because the Ada
>compiler vendors have a captive market and can charge more simply because
>there is no competition for them.  The Ada Mandate is a gross market
>distortion that allows these inflated prices to continue.  Remove the
>Mandate and two things will happen: first, the Ada vendors will have to
>drastically lower their prices to be competitive with the C/C++ vendors.
>Second, since the vendors are used to competition within the defense
>world, between competition with C/C++ vendors and loss of sales to DoD
>projects now using C/C++, most of the vendors will go out of the Ada
>business.
>
>    The vendors have used every excuse in the book to explain away the
>fact why their prices are so high compared to industry standards, except
>for the reason that neither Ada nor their compilers are competitive.
>Just look how people are spending their own money.
>
After 10 years of dealing with Ada vendors, I finally spoke to a sales/
marketing rep from a respectable Ada compiler house (no, I will NOT name
the person or company, not even privately), who finally admitted to me just 
what Greg pointed out above. The vendors have indeed used every excuse in
the book to explain away their obscenely high prices, starting with
"validation is expensive" to "we're a small company with limited resources."

This person volunteered to me in a phone conversation just yesterday that
my longtime assertion (and Greg's) is true: the prices are high because
the mandate creates a captive market. He came very close to saying that
the Ada companies are not marketing much outside the DoD because they 
know their prices are unaffordably high. Keep in mind that a company
cannot sell to Uncle Sam for a higher price than that charged in the
marketplace.

The upshot seems to be that vendors are afraid to drop their prices
and sell aggressively because if it doesn't work - if Ada does not 
become a spectacular success - they will, by dropping their prices,
have lost the ability to gouge the taxpayers.

It matters not which company this person represented; suffice to say
that it was a real business-type person from a real Ada outfit. His
frustration and disgust with the situation came through fairly clearly.

The conversation started because this person had heard that I am
keeping a list of non-defense Ada projects, and wanted a copy. He sells
Ada products but has no e-mail account, so I'll send him a paper one.

Strangely, he asked me what my "charter" was to maintain such a list. I
told him that I was doing it on my own time and initiative simply
because nobody else was. He asked me whether the list was copyrighted
and how much I charged. I told him "no" and "nothing". He could
not conceive of anyone doing somethikng with Ada who's not out to
make a buck. I told him how ironic it is that I, a college professor
with no charter and no direct stake in Ada save a few bucks in book
royalties, was receiving calls and letters from _vendor_ folks looking
for _me_ to tell _them_ who's using Ada.

By the way: the company in question is - like most of the Ada companies -
hedging their bets by starting to develop C++ products. They are so
accustomed to the protected mandated market, and to our constant carping
about how rotten their products are (they're not really THAT bad!),
that it is inconceivable to them that their stuff could succeed in a
competitive market where competitive prices are charged.

Ada is truly a "dual use" technology. But you'd never guess it from
talking to Ada companies.

I've flamed enuf.

Mike Feldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Feldman
co-chair, SIGAda Education Committee

Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
(202) 994-5253 (voice)
(202) 994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)

"The most important thing is to be sincere, 
and once you've learned how to fake that, you've got it made." 
-- old show-business adage
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