Re: ada-c++ productivity

[rreid@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ralph Reid III)]

In article <1991Mar16.205228.4268@grebyn.com> ted@grebyn.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:
> . . .
>from the Feb. 11 issue of Federal Computer Week:
>
>   "The GSA Board of Contract appeals issued a ruling last month that
>   could effect how the military evaluates the cost effectiveness of Ada
>   software.
>
>   "The board upheld a decision by the Air Force to award a contract to
>    a high-priced bidder based on a measure of productivity that equals
>    three lines of Ada code per programmer per day.
>
>    "A lower priced bidder, and others in the Ada community, said this
>    standard is much too low.  The protester in the case, DynaLantic
>    Corp, offered an average of ten lines of code per day per
>    programmer.
>
>    "Three lines of code per day is absurd [as if ten wasn't], said
>    Ralph Crafts, editor of a newsletter on Ada, and an expert
>    witness for the protester.....
> . . .


I don't know where these companies are digging up these kind of
unproductive machine operators (I hesitate to call them real
programmers), but they would never get through the computer science
program here at Chico State.  It kind of makes me wonder what schools
they came from, if they even have degrees.  The kind of productivity
discussed in this article sounds like the level I might expect from
beginning programming students at a junior college.  I would like to
know what in this world could reduce a serious programmer's
productivity to these levels.

-- 
Ralph.  SAAC member.
ARS: N6BNO
Compuserve: 72250.3521@compuserve.com
email: rreid@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu