Re: Why it was a bad idea to drop The Mandate.

[munck@Mill-Creek-Systems.com (Robert Munck)]

On Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:05:07 -0500, gwinn@res.ray.com (Joe Gwinn)
wrote:
>... the Mandate is now yesterday's war.

But the military always fights yesterday's war today.
Just look at the huge effort they're putting into
preparing for Desert Storm.

More to the point of CLA, the original reason for
the Ada effort, proliferation of languages and the
difficulty of maintaining systems that need old
versions of compilers running on old hosts, is
still with us.  Even as we speak (type), systems
in which the long-gone program manager invented a
flimsy excuse to use C or C++ are in horrible 
trouble because their compilers are obsolete, are
no longer supported, and the language definition
has changed. PMs who were "forward-thinking" 
enough to use Java are suffering from the continual
changes in the language and support systems and
beginning to suspect that Java is little more than
a flash in the pan.

The reason I was suprised that they dropped
the Mandate was that it was such a clear 
admission that the DoD is unable to maintain any
semblance of internal discipline. It's especially
disconcerting that Emmett Paige had to do it.

Bob Munck
Mill Creek Systems LC