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Xref: utzoo comp.lang.ada:5683 comp.software-eng:5987
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!uunet!weyrich!orville
From: orville@weyrich.UUCP (Orville R. Weyrich)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Reserve Demobilization System Built Around Reused Ada Code
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.232014.1207@weyrich.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jun 91 23:20:14 GMT
References: <1991Jun11.062703.15671@netcom.COM> <PCG.91Jun14183250@aberdb.aber.ac.uk> <1991Jun15.002253.10735@netcom.COM>
Reply-To: orville@weyrich.UUCP (Orville R. Weyrich)
Organization: Weyrich Computer Consulting
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1991Jun15.002253.10735@netcom.COM> jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
>pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes:
>
>Indeed! And what other term SHOULD we apply to using a DBMS instead of
>writing our own? See, that's what's so ironic about reuse--like AI,
>as soon as someone achieves a significant SUCCESS in the area of reuse,
>people change the rules ("No, THAT'S not really reuse...that's just
>using off-the-shelf software..."). The whole IDEA of reuse is to get
>to the point where you yank a bunch of preexisting software off a shelf
>and lash it together with a bit of glue, in exactly the same way that
>any other engineering discipline makes use of preexisting parts, subsystems,
>cards, chips, pistons, or what have you. We build software the way people
>built flintlock rifles before what's-his-name (damn!--not my day for
>Jeopardy questions--what was the name of the guy?) realized that building

I'll try Eli Whitney for $0.02.

Funny thing is that his two contributions to science and technology were
the guns that made the Civil War so bloody, and the cotton gin that made
using slave labor so cost-ineffective that slavery would have passed away
of its own accord if given just a little more time. :-(.

>N identical triggers as a way to help build N identical rifles might be
>a good idea. We're treating software like a custom built item EVERY SINGLE
>TIME we build something. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid.
>


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Orville R. Weyrich, Jr., Ph.D.                   Certified Systems Professional
Internet: orville%weyrich@uunet.uu.net             Weyrich Computer Consulting
Voice:    (602) 391-0821                         POB 5782, Scottsdale, AZ 85261
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