The growth of Ada in both private and public sectors

The growth of Ada in both private and public sectors

[Don Tyzuk]

I would like to share with the group a few of my observations
from my co-op work experience as an undergrad and as a new
computer professional in the workplace.

My first co-op work term was with a municipal government as
a unix administrator.  The financial software is written in
BASIC and is total spaghetti. In fact, all of the financial
software for most public institutions here, and many private
companies is written in BASIC. Why? I don't know for sure,
but observation would suggest it is because it is interpreted,
that changes can be made on the fly, without recompilation
of the whole mess, testing, re-installation, etc.  The result?
The municipality re-aligned its fiscal year with the provincial
government from a Jan year-end to an April year-end, causing
a sixteen month fy for a single instance.

The software was heavily hacked to accomplish this.

Some observations on the results: I have friends who pay no
property taxes.  Surely there must be more serious errors
that are costing us BIG BUCKS.

There is a strong trend to quality in the marketplace, and
both the private and public sector is growing more aware of
the cost of twenty-five cent solutions.

--
Donald Tyzuk
Donald Tyzuk and Associates
PO Box 1406
Wolfville  NS  B0P 1X0       CANADA