Re: Vendor bashing and pushing Ada....and an ad from SGI.

["Paul Pukite" <pukite@daina.com>]

David Weller  <dweller@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:
>In my opinion, there's room to create a broader market for Ada.  My
>opinion isn't formet from complex market studies (or, some would
>claim, eve common sense :-), but rather from (as some philosopher
>whose name I Kant remember) "the will to believe".  I find, in many
>ways, this "will" translates into enthusiasm, which tends to be
>contagious :-)

Right on the money, which leads into a quote I picked up:
   "There are a small group of people who make things happen, a 
   little larger group of people who watch what is going to happen,
   and the overwhelming majority, who haven't the slightest idea
   of what is happening." 

The people who have the enthusiasm and can make things happen include 
Professor Feldman, the GNAT team, the 9X team, and Team Ada volunteers 
(Dave and Magnus in particular).

The rest of us with a vested interest in Ada should feed off this 
enthusiasm and help get the word out. Granted, it's not easy to 
penetrate the mass-market computing world, but we have to keep trying 
with articles or letters-to-the-editor promoting these wonderful tools 
like GNAT, Ada-Ed, etc.  Be persistent.  Just today, I got back a 
rejection letter for an article I wrote for PC Techniques. It said:

        PAUL - OUR SURVEYS DON'T SHOW MUCH ADA USAGE AMONG
        THE READERS, SO I'LL HAVE TO PASS. THANKS FOR LETTING
        ME SEE IT, THO - (signed) Jeff Duntemann  

        (all caps, no kidding!)

I have to laugh, we must be on the right track!

Comp.lang.ada provides a platform for polishing our arguments and 
creating inspirational pep-talks before the big game. But, as we all 
know, the big game occurs in the mass-media world of advertising.

(Does anyone know how many people actually read Usenet? 
 My guess is that the number of lurkers roughly equals the number of 
 active participants -- i.e. not many)

--
Paul Pukite (pukite@daina.com)       
DAINA Engineering 612/781-7600       
4111 Central AVE NE, Suite 212       
Minneapolis, MN  55421-2953