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From: kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)
Subject: Re: Ada 83 - Sometimes still chosen
Date: 1999/03/25
Message-ID: <1999Mar25.081648.1@eisner>#1/1
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Date: 1999-03-25T00:00:00+00:00
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In article <7dc9ld$2u6@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>, Richard D Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> writes:
> In article <7dbvl2$5bl$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> 	robert_dewar@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> 
>>Sure, we know that some projects get stuck using obsolete
>>hardware, software, operating systems, compilers etc, and
>>that is understandable (and not necessarily an
>>inappropriate decision).
> 
>  I am uneasy with the selection of the word "obsolete."  A
>  technology is obsolete if it is not the best choice for the
>  solution to a particular problem.  Sometimes a newer CPU
>  architecture might offer some improvement in performance,
>  but the price/performance ratio might make the obsolete 
>  processor a better option.

Price/performance is irrelevant if the price has already been
paid and the performance is adequate. The quality of the new
version of my bagel-counting program is going to be better
than the previous version mainly due to increased sophistication
of the bagel-counting algorithm, not due to compiler attributes.

There is a _great_ deal of value to sticking with the same tools
if repeatable results are important.

Larry Kilgallen