Re: Ada RCAS code thrown away; IBM/Loral/SBIS under indictment

[crispen@hiwaay.net (Bob Crispen)]

srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) wrote:

>And if Boeing developed a million lines of Ada code that now
>is being scrapped, what kind of code are they developing as part of the STARS
>effort?  Is that stuff just as bad as their RCAS code?

Well, as an author of the virtual net part of that STARS code, along
with the executive, the utilities, the framework that allowed
individual lines of code to be included or excluded, and (with others)
the DARTS architecture which was chosen as the domain architecture, I
can say without prejudice of any kind that it's just wonderful!  And
as a good friend of the other folks who did Ada code for the
Boeing/Navy STARS project, I have to say, again completely
objectively, that their code was pretty good, too ;-)

>Besides, given all of
>the other Ada efforts cancelled, why is the DoD still wasting money on the
>porky STARS effort?

Well, perhaps because process-driven reuse and domain engineering are
pretty darn good ideas.  I keep trying to explain to you, Greg, just
what those words mean, but I see I'm having the same problems as
always in getting through.

> IBM's contribution was a joke, Boeing's contribution
>probably is a joke given RCAS, who cares about Unisys, all topped off with the
>rampant waste and fraud at ASSET.

[Quite a bit snipped].

Now, Greg, my newsreader has been acting up, so I'm sure that it
simply inadvertently deleted the place where, in the interest of
intellectual honesty and integrity you mentioned that:

(a) RCAS was killed for political reasons, pure and simple, and before
they pulled the plug, it worked.  Worked good, from all I've heard.

(b) You were the proprietor of a commercial reuse repository business
that STARS and ASSET (you neglected the PAL this time, Greg) put quite
a cramp in.  I mean, if I'm gonna say DC-9s have lousy environmental
control systems, I ought to at least say that I work for a competitor,
shouldn't I?  (Actually, fwiw, they do, but the MD-80s that succeeded
them have perfectly wonderful ECS's -- all in my ignorant opinion, of
course).

Like I said, I'm sure my newsreader just ate those lines.  In case
others' newsreaders misbehave similarly, I'm taking the liberty of
supplying them for you.

All the above my personal opionion, not speaking for my company, and
posted from my home address.
Bob Crispen
crispen@hiwaay.net