Re: Air Force helping to undermine Ada

[munck@STARS.RESTON.PARAMAX.COM (Bob Munck)]

In article <SRCTRAN.93Mar8175011@world.std.com>, srctran@world.std.com
(Gregory Aharonian) wrote:

>(quotes article about Air Force use of a Xerox program.) ...
>     Another beta user, the U.S. Air Force, is implementing a work
>flow system based on InConcert that specifies 1,400 tasks and 60
>applications and will be used by 10,000 people. (end of quote)
>
>    This is a good example of the beginning of the end of Ada inside
> the DoD ...
> 

Ok, Greg, read this very carefully.  Try to concentrate.

Ada is mandated by DoD because a program that uses it cost less over
its full life cycle.  The larger the program and the longer the life
cycle, the higher the percentage saved.

DoD does not care if Xerox saves money or not.  Therefore there is no
reason for them to buy a bunch of object code that was created from
Ada rather than a bunch created from C, or C++, or BRUIN.

I personally think we are heading for a slow crisis because of the
mass of incomprehendable C that so many vendors are staking their
business upon.  There will come a time when the pile is no longer
maintainable, and the company will be in trouble.  Lotus went through
a crisis like this a few years ago, and the telephone companies are
going through it right now.  Proper use of Ada would help avoid this.

Greg, I have to wonder why you keep attacking STARS.  You never seem
to know much about the program, but you sure have an opinion of it! 
I can only assume that your opinion is based on the same kind of logic
as that you demonstrated with the Xerox example.

Also, what make you think the Air Force project using InConcert is
software development?

Bob Munck