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Subject:
From:
"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Robert C. Leif, Ph.D.
Date:
Fri, 3 Apr 1998 14:16:47 -0800
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (56 lines)
To: Stanley Allen et al.
From Bob Leif, Ph.D.

For once, we have a controlled experiment. The results of marketing Ada 95
vs Java. Ada 95 won on technology and lost on marketing. The end result is
the present Java explosion and probable software disaster. I suggest we
have either a tutorial or a section on marketing Ada at SigAda '98. Tri-Ada
'97 was a marketing disaster, since it did not have a press release!

Our annual Ada meeting besides its very useful technical content,
exhibitions, operetta, and chance to meet ones friends has another very
important purpose. It is a media event. Suggested headline for SigAda '98,
"New Technology to Replace Java. Ada does what Java promised. I also
suggested Ralph Nader as a speaker. C++ UNSAFE at any Speed. Marketing
involves oversimplifying and playing hard ball!

Suggestion number two. Every Ada marketing manager will write one letter to
the editor per week. I would also suggest bombarding the Wall Street
Journal including every time  Java is mentioned in the Journal or on its
Web site. I must confess that the idea of managers making technical
decisions based on newspaper advertisements and articles is thoroughly
repugnant and sickening to me. However unfortunately over the short time,
there is no way to stop this nonsense.

I have been telling the Ada vendors that they should do CE. Ironically
after all of the excellent work and dedication employed to create Ada 95, I
suspect one can sell Ada based on its very useful, however mundane
advantage of supporting 8 bit characters (Latin 1).  The use of 8 bit
rather than the present 16 bit Windows CE (Unicode) characters would
provide a significant space for small systems.

At 01:56 AM 4/3/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Take a gander at this:
>
>http://techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/98/1001news/windowsce.html
>
>As if we didn't have enough problems.
>
>But I hope some Ada compiler vendor(s) will light
>a candle so we don't have to curse the darkness.
>
>And do some marketing to boot.  I'm always surprised
>at the lack of marketing effort by Ada vendors.  There
>are Ada vendors and products that no one even knows
>about.  And the well-known ones don't seem to have
>the inclination to expand their market base beyond
>DoD.  When vendors do place ads, they seem to be
>in the wrong place, the wrong periodicals, trying
>to persuade the wrong people.
>
>--
>Stanley Allen
>mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
>

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