Re: Is General Kind the harbinger of doom

[breland@mcc.com (Mark A. Breland)]

In article 56@almaden.ibm.com, jnestoriak@vnet.IBM.COM () writes:
>
>I've heard this complaint of "not enough Ada programmers" over and
>over here.  Is this really the case?  It seems to me that a shortage
>of programmers for a particular language is always contrived.  Anyone
>who graduates from a decent University with a degree in Computer
>Science who can't learn a new programming language in less than a
>month must have slept through too many classes.  Is it really
 ^^^^^
I'd probably agree with you on this point *syntactically*; however,
*semantically* it's an entirely different story.  The nuances and
subtlies of Ada require a broader experience base with the language
and the platform on which it's implemented to develop a full understanding
of its behavior.

>unreasonable to expect employers to give a few weeks of education
>to their new hires (whether experience or from school)?  I'd like to
>think I'm a genius because I was able to quickly learn "that
>terribly complex and hard to understand" language Ada, but I get the
>feeling that it's not too rare an ability.

What you see here is an instance of MIL-STD-MGR at work.  It's not
surprising to see Ada contractors manage in the same manner as their largest
customer (i.e., DoD)...reactively.  They've got 40 programming positions to
fill so what do they do?  Submit a requisition for Body, warm-Ada-proficient,
CFE-1815A-2167A-SM/F quantity 40.  There's a problem...do something to make
it go away.  It's difficult for them to shake the mindset that people are
readily interchangeable, yet must have all perquisite specializations.

However, this does not have to be the case...more gems of proactive managers
are surfacing, but most frequently in the commercial environment.
Personally, when I hire, and I have to choose between a perfect Ada
Adonis/Diana stud/babe or a competent software engineer lacking Ada exposure
but having expertise in the applied technology,  I'll go for the applied
technology expert every time.  The benefit of their application expertise
outweighs the cost of any necessary Ada training.  One or two Ada gurus
in-house to tackle esoteric Ada-issues, coupled with a stable of
application-expert software programmers, will increase your cost
effectiveness and reduce program completion risk.  Unless you want to shop
around for the first half of your scheduled program time looking for a full
staff of Ada competents...  ;)

---
Mark A. Breland - Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)
Ada Fault Tolerance                               | voice:    (512) 338-3509
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