Re: Ada vendors abandon Ada in November Emb.Sys.Prog.

[kdm@puppy.rational.com (Kent Mitchell)]

Gregory Aharonian (srctran@world.std.com) wrote:
[ snipped out a lot of stuff which is the standard stuff about Ada vendor
not spending THEIR OWN MONEY they way Greg think they should (i.e. on
advertising ]

:      "And when you consider that through the life cycle of your average large
: system, changes amount to eight time the original cost, you quickly see the
: financial significance of Ada's software design".  Well by reading just the
: text of this ad, I don't see the financial significance of Ada.  There is no
: data to make such a conclusion, so claiming it not only is wrong, but plays
: on the vaporware fears of many programming consumers.  Further no one is going
: to believe any such claims made by something coming out of the defense world.
: And finally, "life cycle" is a phrase with little meaning in the commercial
: software world, unfortunately.  So selling to that need will fall on deaf
: ears, especially when you mention nothing about the size and speed of 
: executables, which do concern commercial programmers.  You might as well claim
: that Ada cures AIDS, a claim that follows as logically from the ad as the
: claim of Ada's financial benefits.

I agree with Greg that the ad did very little to "prove" it's conclusion.
However, the statement that the term "life cycle" is not used in the
commercial world is complete bunk.  This is exactly the term used in all
cases I've been involved with in the commercial world (remember with
Greg's assertion that Rational is abandoning Ada all I ever seem to do is
visit commercial sites these days ;-) ).  To say that life cycle cost mean
nothing to the commercial world when compared to "the size and speed of
the executable" show how little Greg really knows about commercial software
development.  Commercial software development is *more* concerned with life
cycle costs as they are (to use a well known refrain) SPENDING THEIR OWN
MONEY.

--
Kent Mitchell                   | One possible reason that things aren't
Technical Consultant            | going according to plan is .....
Rational Software Corporation   | that there never *was* a plan!