Re: Ada is not a failure.

[cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.aero.o rg!doner@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (John Doner)]

In article <1993Jul27.134205.7881@vitro.com> mzwick@vitro.com (Morris J. Zwick)
 writes:
>In article <1993Jul25.065103.19504@hellgate.utah.edu>
>matwood%peruvian.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Mark Atwood) writes:
>>
>>True, your LEAP program makes a stab at it, but it took an Ada vendor too
>>long to realize what nearly every other software vendor knows, the schools
>>are what will sell you.  (And don't tell me about "finantial realities".
>>Once you have the thing developed, it's next to free to copy and distribute
>                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>This argument is specious. How do you expect to recover the costs of developin
g
>the software if you don't ask a high enough price? The real problem with Ada
>prices is the (at least cuurently) small market for selling the compilers.
>Economies of scale do not enter the fray, therefore the development costs are
>recovered over fewer copies of the product.

Really?  Not so, usually.  Development costs are sunk costs.  You invested
(i.e., gambled) your money and time up front.  Once the product is there, you
want to make the most you can from it.  You want every dime you can get from
it, and it makes no difference what it cost you to reach the point you are at
now.  The real problem is vendors not understanding this, and behaving as
though the marketplace "owed" them they money they spent.

A few years ago, Meridian came out with an Ada compiler and development system
for the Macintosh.  The price was in the thousands.  I laughed.  How could
anyone be so totally oblivious of the realities of the marketplace into which
they were selling?  Think C for the Mac, also an excellent development
environment, was selling for under $100 in the education market and not much
more retail.  The way to make money in the personal computer market was to
price it low and sell tens of thousands of copies.  Ask Borland or Symantec.
Eventually, Meridian evidently realized this and their prices came down.  But
they may have been too late.

John Doner