Re: Digital MoBoard in Ada

[Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com>]

Adrian Hoe wrote:

> "David C. Hoos, Sr." <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com> wrote in message
> > I can assure you that with a properly enabled browser there is
> > plenty to see, although this is not an Open Source project, nor
> > is the program available to non-Department of Defense persons.
>
> Why not? I don't see any military confidentiality in this program. If
> that's a great software to help safe navigation of vessels, then it
> should be available to everyone. After all, it shows that another
> successful Ada implementation for safety critical computing. :)

Several points need to be made.   First, at this stage of the project,
it is no longer a student project.   It has moved on to become an
important piece of software that the Navy might be able to incorporate
into more significant shipboard systems.    Already, one trial version
is deployed using a laptop computer on one ship.

Second, the software is being updated to interface with some serious
data acquisition systems that will be in the realm of classified software.

Third, as several contributors to this thread have mentioned, my only
reason for calling attention to the site was to let people know that
there was an active project in Ada that had some promise.   It occurred
to me that some Ada enthusiasts might like to know that much.

Last, I will contact the developers (former students) and suggest to them
that certain parts of their software might be released to the wider
public.   What they do is their call.   They set up their site so other
military (e.g. Navy) developers could participate and contribute.
It was my decision to let the Ada community at large know about this,
not theirs.   I suspect they don't care whether you like it or not since
that was not their original intent.

For those of you who do appreciate knowing that Ada is not entirely
dead and has enthusiasts within our military development community,
thanks for you feedback.  For those of you who are irritated about
some aspect of the site or some part of the decision to restrict access
to some of the software,  there is nothing I can do about it.

Someone once said they found themselves making people angry more
often by trying to something nice than by being crass and cranky.  I
have tried to do something nice and find myself getting beat up by
those who I thought would be pleased by the information.

Richard Riehle