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=2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,INVALID_DATE, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ames-vmsb.arpa!emiya From: emiya@AMES-VMSB.ARPA Newsgroups: net.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada Professional Questions Message-ID: <8509120549.AA07078@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: Thu, 12-Sep-85 02:42:00 EDT Article-I.D.: UCB-VAX.8509120549.AA07078 Posted: Thu Sep 12 02:42:00 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 13-Sep-85 03:26:01 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: emiya@ames-vmsb.ARPA Organization: The ARPA Internet List-Id: I've just read these two letters again, I think they best belong in soft-eng. They are broader scope than Ada alone. How does any contracting body tell if a contractor is worth their salt. I've seen a large number of body shops in the past six years which tells me that people bid on contracts without having the requisite expertise in house in hopes of hiring people along the way. I know this because the Xerox XTEN project tried three times hire me for what I regarded as a project which had no hope of succeeding. I don't think Ed's comments were snobbish. I think they show a real concern about how contracts are written. It's a real problem. There are too many people on the Ada bandwagon. I don't think writing Ada programs are much harder than other languages, but I do think the class of programs [real-time embedded systems] working in distributed environments are harder than your typical FORTRAN simulation or analysis package. My favorite Ada example is in Mary Shaw's book: the LaPlace solver for Cm* the 50 processor multiprocessor [done with Peter Hibbard] based on G. Baudet's PhD thesis. This six page program is otherwise, basically about 5 lines of FORTRAN on a uniprocessor [including two CONTINUEs]. It's the class of programs which are harder. Writing a spread sheet in Ada and FORTRAN is going to be about the same difficulty in either language. Many of the people who read these contracts are just managers and lawyers and procurement types. They don't know programming. They don't understand the issues of deadlock, debugging, having clear requirements..... Not all are this way, but many are. They are concern with crossing T and dotting i's [I'm being a bit extreme, sorry, flame off, too long]. EOF --eugene miya ------