Re: Future with Ada

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

As well you know, Bob, I'm much in favor of the notion of making money from
the development of software. I think in particular that I liked the idea you
expressed in this and other papers that one of the best ways to promote Ada
and encourage its use is to demonstrate how people can make money by
developing in Ada.

Many companies don't necessarily know about or believe in the benefits of
using Ada because they have not witnessed the tangible monetary benefits of
doing so. If their competitors were using Ada and developing better
software, faster and cheaper, then they'd have to take a look at that.

Many individual programmers are reluctant to learn or use Ada because they
don't see a job future in it. They see thousands of ads for jobs using other
languages and few ads for Ada positions. If they saw more companies using
Ada, they might be encouraged to want to earn a living that way.

If the ad-hoc developers out there saw a chance to develop something in Ada
that might gain them fame and fortune rather than just the undying gratitude
of end users and corporations who picked up their work at no cost, there
might be more of them flocking to the fold. Perhaps that's where I was
headed by suggesting the construction of some commercial product in Ada that
would compete against some of the other big time apps out there. If Ada is
so great, it ought to be possible to build something that competes
effectively with the big guys, produces a better quality end product for the
consumer, makes money for those involved and produces more tools/utilities
for the Ada community. Seems like everyone could win.

MDC

--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <rleif@rleif.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1008690662.8682.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> From: Bob Leif
> To: Ian S. Nelson et al,
> As I have already pointed out, the developers of Linux have contributed
> mightily to the fortunes of the founders of RedHat and the shareholders of
> companies like IBM. I hope that entrance to the software engineering
> profession does not require an oath of poverty.
>
> R. C. Leif, "SIGAda 99, Workshop: How do We Expedite the Commercial Use of
> Ada?" Ada Letters XX pp19-26 (2000).