Re: Is General Kind the harbinger of doom for the Mandate?

[joshua@Veritas.COM (Joshua Levy)]

In article <19930331.054448.56@almaden.ibm.com> jnestoriak@vnet.IBM.COM writes:
>>	 "We're hearing calls to abandon Ada from DoD officials",
>>	 he said.  "I'm asking contractors to assess it, and
>>	 they say it does what's needed, but they can't get
>>	 enough programmers".
>
>>Not enough Ada programmers being supplied by the free markets.
>
>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
>unreasonable to expect employers to give a few weeks of education
>to their new hires (whether experience or from school)?  

Another way of put it is this:  There is a shortage of programmers who
want to learn (or work in) Ada.  

Obviously most programmers could learn Ada if they wanted to.  If not
in days, then certainly in weeks.  Back when military programming was
a growing business, lots of programmers were willing to learn Ada.
But now, with military programming as a shrinking business, and little
interest in Ada programmers from the commercial world, why should
programmers take a jobs which requires them to learn Ada?  

Joshua Levy  (joshua@veritas.com)