Re: Ichbiah's letter to Anderson: Here it is

[fedfil!news@uunet.uu.net (news)]

I love analogies...  several in this group were less than thrilled with my
last one (the Viennese ball...);  try this one:

Picture the biggest lemon of all times in the automotive industry,  No, I
don't mean the Edsel, which was a lemon from a marketing and timing standpoint,
but nevertheless ran and did what it was advertised to do more or less.  The
British are really better in this department than we are;  somewhere between
the Humber Super-Snipe, the Rover 3500-S, and the Triumph Stag ("Swagger up
to a Stag, and stagger away!"), is probably the all time prize.

Picture the designer and chief engineer of the Humber Super-Snipe coming out
and saying:

   "You know, I'm really a pretty bright fellow, and I really do know a lot
   about building cars, you see, and I don't really want to saya whole lot 
   about the Humber Super-Snipe which is out there now...  sort of embarassing
   if you know what I mean, not one of my better efforts and I've learned
   a lot since then, but what I really want to tell you people is that the
   group of clowns who are working on NEXT YEAR's model Humber Super-Snipe
   have really messed up BAD!!!  I mean, there's just no way you want to
   buy one of those rascals!!  In fact, I don't even want to be associated 
   with Humber any more!!!  In fact, I hereby wash my hands of this whole
   sordid affair, just like Pontius Pilate, here, gimme that bucket of
   water and that towel...


There are better roads to travel out there.  One of which is the programming
language which comes with Borland's new MS-Windows version of Paradox.  This
is called ObjectPAL, and is a really beautiful implementation of a point-
and-shoot, object oriented language which is oriented towards database
applications.  

Two things I'm noticing about Ada applications:  One is that the really
big database applications appear to be the ones which get messed up the
worst, and two is that, when all is said and done, the really biggest
problem with Ada is simply the likelihood of procuring 30 or 50 competent
Ada programmers out in the middle of Podong Indiana or Oklahoma somewhere
on an army base.  C++ is obviously not a solution to that problem either.
ObjectPal just might be.  Borland has a $140 special on PdoxWin now and,
in my estimation, it would be hard to find a better way to spend $140.


-- 
Ted Holden
HTE