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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
X-To:
Michael Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 12 Feb 1998 16:54:54 -0800
Reply-To:
Ben Brosgol <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
Ben Brosgol <[log in to unmask]>
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Mike Feldman wrote-

>Now to Stanley's point about bookstores. I too am frustrated by the
>lack of "shelf space" devoted to Ada. In the DC area, the Computer
>Literacy Bookshop in Tysons Corner (www.clbs.com) always has a good
>selection; in principle, they carry the entire collection of current
>Ada texts. (Of course, they also carry almost everything else in
>computing!) But CLBS is, of course unique; their flagship store in
>San Jose is legendary.
>
>Some of the Borders branches here also have a good selection of Ada
>stuff - the one in Tysons Corner is almost as good as CLBS.
>The problem with bookstores is another instance of the generic
>Ada problem: small market share -> less interest -> smaller market share.
>
>The stores sell what people want to buy; they have only so much space
>and money to sink into inventory. So if you don't like what you see
>in your local trade (as opposed to university) bookstores, order a
>book through them, and get your local friends to do the same.
>


At SoftPro (www.softpro.com) in Burlington MA, there is a pretty good
selection of Ada books -- indeed there is more shelf space for Ada than
for COBOL!

Admittedly, finding a technical bookstore well stocked with Ada texts is
the exception, and the fact that companies like Aonix and Intermetrics are
in the neighborhood may be skewing the SoftPro customer sample in an
Ada direction.

When someone mentions that Ada texts are in general hard to find at
bookstores, I try to give this a positive spin: Ada is so popular that as
soon
as the Ada books come in, they disappear as eager customers grab them up.
OTOH all those C++ and Java books are just sitting there on the shelves
gathering dust :-)

Ben Brosgol
Aonix
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