Re: Creating markets (long)

[ncohen@watson.ibm.com (Norman H. Cohen)]

In article <34t6od$9mo@felix.seas.gwu.edu>, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu
(Michael Feldman) writes: 

|> Now to the Ada business. I can bore you all day with anecdotes, but will
|> limit myself to one that I think encapsulates the attitude. A certain
|> Ada compiler vendor, asked about making some additional investments in
|> their Mac compiler, responded "How many Ada programmers do you know
|> that use Macs?" (This was before Apple shifted its allegiance to C++
|> and was pushing Pascal as the main developer language.)

It reminds me of the (fictional) story of the corporation offered the
opportunity to build the George Washington Bridge as a private
enterprise, and in return to receive the rights to all tolls collected.
The corporation observed that there were no cars currently driving across
the Hudson River between upper Manhattan and Ft. Lee, NJ, and concluded
that there was no market for the bridge.

--
Norman H. Cohen    ncohen@watson.ibm.com