Re: Open comment to Ted Holden

[milo!grebyn!daily!margono@uunet.uu.net (Johan Margono)]

In article <1745@nic.cerf.net> jonesm@nic.cerf.net (Matthew Jones) writes:
>And for my 2 cents.
>
>[deleted stuff ...]
>
>Defense contractors take a lot of criticism for producing expensive 
>bug riddled products. Many people ask why doesn't mil equipment 
>work as well as commercial stuff. I think that people should consider
>that Microsoft for example had 50,000 people beta test Windows 3.1
>and the people are still having problems with it. Does
>the defense department have 50,000 people to test their equipment?
>For free? Does the Dod have a Dr. Dobbs Journal or many of the 
>equivalents to help them work over technical issues. 
>That is paid for by the user community?
>If a Word processor has a FATAL bug it in that probably means that
>it might destroy some data on your hard disk. A FATAL error in 
>a mil system may mean that many people will die. Are these two really
>comparable?
>
>To me that largest problem with Ada is that it doesn't have a large
>customer base. So the Ada Compiler/development systems are not checked
>out as well as its commerial counterparts. How many beta test sites
>are there for the average C compiler? How many for Ada? And keep in mind
>that Ada is a lot more complicated than C. Borland has sold hundreds
>of thousands of their C (and C++) compilers, how many has Meredian
>or Alsys sold for the PC?
>
>End of 2 cents.
>
>Matthew Jones
>jonesm@cerf.net

This argument reminds me of the following software development guidelines
which seem so pervasive in our industry:

  1. Order T-shirts for the development team
  2. Announce availability
  3. Write the code
  4. Write the manual
  5. Hire a Product Manager
  6. Spec the s/w (writing the specs after the code helps to
     ensure that your s/w meets the specs)
  7. Ship
  8. Test (the customers are a BIG help here)
  9. Identify bugs as potential enhancements
 10. Announce the upgrade program

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 Johan Margono
 Computer Sciences Corporation
 email: jmargono@starlab.csc.com
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