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Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 09:56 EDT
From: SAHARBAUGH@ROO.FIT.EDU
Subject: Open comment to Ted Holden
Message-ID: <9204081355.AA13680@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Ted,
  You do not seem to grasp the difference between the mission of
the US Army and the mission of commercial software vendors.
The US Army must defend our country and keep you and I and
our decendants safe.  The commercial software vendors must
make a profit for their stockholders.
  You do not seem to grasp the difference in performance
requirements ofr military software vs commercial software.
Military software must work or we may lose the war.  I urge
you to talk to some survivors from countries who lost wars.
Theirs is not a pleasant story, and they were the survivors.
Commercial software must only work well enough so that someone
will buy it and continue to buy the upgrades. I personally
call commercial software "crap for brains".  I have examples
to back that up.
  No matter what Army software costs it is cheaper than the
alternative.  Imagine an enemy with Apache helicopter
equivalents in your home town for an hour. The national
debt may be huge but it is not as huge as the cost of
rebuilding Wash DC or New Yoork after a nuclear attack.
And, as an extra added benefit, we are alive and well
and our infrastructure is intact and we can work to
pay off that debt.
  I agree with NOTHING you say but I defend your right
to say it.
sam harbaugh saharbaugh@ROO.FIT.EDU        
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ps: pls excuse the typos
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