From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.o
Subject: Re: Study shows Ada tools ten times more costly
Date: 18 May 93 14:18:54 GMT [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1993May18.101854.1528@sei.cmu.edu> (raw)
In article <C784HG.5E0@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
writes:
> One comment has some relevance to the issue of the Ada Mandate. To
>quote (page 99):
>
> "The cost of software engineering tools ranges from less"
> than $1 per function point, to more than $20 per function
> point. Developers using PC, Unix and Apple Macintosh
> platforms have the largest selection of tools priced at
> less than $1 per function point. Manufacturers and
> military software developers often use tools priced at
> more than $10 per function point.
>
>
> This comment to some extent supports the contention that the Ada
>Mandate, by sheltering the Ada tools companies from competition, is distorting
>the marketplace and making use of Ada more expensive than other languages.
>(I assume in his study that for the most part, military software developers
>only are buying Ada tools).
>
Dadgummit, Greg! This is NOT related to Ada! Tool cost is almost
diretcly related to the PLATFORM, not the language. I spent 10
years in the military, five in electronic warfare and five in software
development. The costs I found were related to using tools on specialized
hardware platforms: Honeywell, Tandem, HP Special Test Harnesses,
and aging IBM boxes. All these products are either low-volume commercial
products or special-purpose military equipment.
Now, I'm not excusing these costs either. Our military culture is more
paralyzed than the culture of large corporations -- changing from mainframes
to low-cost PCs is prohibitively expensive in the short-run, which is
how the military gets its budget. Worse yet, even IF they change to
PCs/Macs, security requirements drive up the hardware costs outrageously.
(New oxymoron: TEMPEST-approved Laptop :-)
--
-Comments above aren't neceessarily the opinion of the SEI, AJPO, or CAE-Link-
David Weller | Have you hugged your DRAGOON lately?
----I'm the Ultimate International Masochist: I speak Ada AND Esperanto!-----
next reply other threads:[~1993-05-18 14:18 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1993-05-18 14:18 dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.o [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1993-05-28 6:40 Study shows Ada tools ten times more costly Robert Dewar
1993-05-27 20:37 Robert I. Eachus
1993-05-26 23:37 dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!news.ser
1993-05-19 16:38 agate!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.ed
1993-05-18 20:16 Robert I. Eachus
1993-05-18 19:15 dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!cs.utexa
1993-05-18 16:04 David Emery
1993-05-18 15:41 dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.o
1993-05-18 15:35 dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!lll-winken.llnl.gov!taurus.cs.nps.navy.mi
1993-05-18 13:08 Gregory Aharonian
replies disabled
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox