Hal Hart wrote:

> Amazingly, I talked to several of our vendors at the SIGAda'98 conference
> last week, and every one I talked to said their Ada business was up in
> 1998, their best year ever.  I don't know if some of these were uttered
> more intended as self-fulfilling prophesies, and I certainly didn't ask to
> see their financial reports, and this was not a comprehensive "survey," but
> I certainly didn't get the impression from anyone that they were going away
> or even shrinking.
>
> Wouldn't it be neat if all our Ada vendors exhibited at shows like STC &
> Embedded Systems & ICSE & NAECON & the SEI & OOPSLA & the other object
> shows with a panel on each booth being a brightly colored graph of Ada
> sales over the years, all strictly increasing curves, and a big
> title/banner atop each saying "Our best year ever for Ada sales!"    --hh

 I got the same impression from the vendors but when I have seen or spoken
with some vendors outside of the Ada community they are quick to boast of
their
newest Java or C++ tools but only mention Ada if questioned.  I would
love to see them mentioning their full line of products which support Ada, C++
and
Java somewhere other than SIG Ada gatherings.  I know that several of them are

at other shows but is Ada prominent or even acknoledged in their booths?

 On a seperate but related note.  I have recently seen several graduate
schools in
my area promoting thier environments and labs as being equipped with the
lastest
inovations from a certain Northwest US company.  I am sure a large donation of
tools
was made to the school in exchange for advertizing the provider and training
new
recruits.  What a joy it would be to see the same from several Ada vendors to
help
increase market share and awareness.  I am not suggesting going after schools
heavily
entrenched in the C/C++ world but how about those places still using Pascal,
Modula,
FORTRAM, etc.

Just a thought.

--
Allan R Spurr           Senior Member Engineering Staff Lockheed Martin GES
199 Borton Landing Rd   mailstop 101-205 Moorestown, NJ 08057
phone (609) 722-2959    Email [log in to unmask]