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Date: 2 Dec 92 13:04:13 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!wupost!cs.uiuc.edu!johnson@hplabs.hpl.hp.com  (Ralph Johnson)
Subject: Re: Self-defeating DoD software reuse policies
Message-ID: <ByMuz3.5GJ@cs.uiuc.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

By and large I agree with what Greg says.  However,

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

>On top of which, if a software reuse center is such a viable, sustainable
>economic concept, why does the DoD have to start such a business?  Why not
>leave it to the private sector?  

Developing a reuse marketplace seems to be a chicken-and-the-egg
problem, and the argument is that it needs a jump-start.  I'm not
convinced this is true, but it is a reasonable argument.  Of course,
as Greg says, it is not clear that DOD is doing it right.

>be there to save the situation, becuase everyone knows that Defense
>contractors don't like to buy third-party reusable software (and I can
>count the companies out of business that assumed otherwise) because of DoD
>policies that the DoD refuses to change or examine.

If the DOD *really* wants to make reuse a reality, it is entirely
within its power.  It should drop cost-plus software development,
let companies make horrendous profits if they can figure out a way
to develop it efficiently, and let a few companies figure out how
to take advantage of reuse to become filthy rich.  I bet it would
take less than ten years.

>Why, in twenty years (ten of which in the Reuse Era), has the DoD been
>unable to do they same thing with all of its software (and much larger
>budgets), especially when some jerk in Boston has almost been able to it
>out of his own wallet?

This is unfair.  "Crazy genius", perhaps.  Richard Stallman is one of
the best programmers in the world.  One of the many mistakes that the
DOD makes is that writing reusable software is the same as writing any
other kind of software.  This is not true; it is harder, and it takes
more skilled people.  If you've seen the rates that Stallman charges
for consulting, you'd have a better idea of how he has managed to pull
it off.  And make no mistake, the Free Software Foundation is a great
reuse success story, in spite of the fact that the software industry
is not going the way Stallman would like it to go.

Ralph Johnson -- University of Illinois at Urnana-Champaign

>**************************************************************************
>Greg Aharonian
>Source Translation & Optimiztion
>P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178