From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1116ece181be1aea X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-09-10 05:36:51 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F5F1ADB.1070008@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada? References: <9keolvs9tjbbbuv1ndnsr69af7mtddemhk@4ax.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 12:36:50 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.4.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1063197410 209.165.4.163 (Wed, 10 Sep 2003 05:36:50 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 05:36:50 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:42346 Date: 2003-09-10T12:36:50+00:00 List-Id: Anyone wishing to bitch about management ought to be required to show credentials as having had a turn in the driver's seat. ;-) Its really easy to sit back and criticize while not being the one who has the responsibility for schedule, budget, personnel, etc. Every decision can be second-guessed and the guy who works for you always knows that it is intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer that whatever decision you made, it is wrong. You don't have control over much of what goes on around you but you have full resopnsibility for the ultimate outcome. If one wants to understand why bureaucracies and large organizations do stupid things from time to time, one need look no further than the Bible. Try the part about the Tower of Babel. The universe seems to be structured such that large groups of people aren't capable of working efficiently towards a common objective. Probably this is a good thing - or tyrants would be unstopable. As for the languages being selected for a lot of these projects? There are probably lots of factors (technical and business) that are figuring into the decisions that are not obvious from the outside. Ultimately, you can build good software in any language - if you're willing to incur the costs associated with shoring up the weaknesses of the given language. So its possible that for a given mission critical piece of software, Visual Basic may have been the right choice. Its impossible to say without knowing all the surrounding factors. MDC Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote: > > > Enron, Worldcom, Deutsche Telecom, uncounted DOT-COM companies; > Mission critical software in Visual Basic; even NASA have admitted > problems with management. Isn't that a threat? > > -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jast.mil/ Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g "In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." -- Voltaire ======================================================================