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=1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1ceac95506c2aa7,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-13 17:44:19 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!redstone.interpath.net!ddsw1!panix!MathWorks.Com!news.kei.com!world!srctran From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: A proposal for Tri-Ada '94 Message-ID: Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 13 Sep 1994 16:40:44 GMT Date: 1994-09-13T16:40:44+00:00 List-Id: In two months, another Tri-Ada will take place, and despite fifteen years and hundreds of millions of dollars being spent, one very key number remains unknown even though the number should be made into a ten foot figure and hoisted above the Tri-Ada convention hall: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE DOD USES ADA ???? As fundamental as your blood pressure, body temperature, or annual corporate net profits, this fundamental figure remains unknown, not only as an instantaneous value (i.e. the percentage as of 11/94), but also its trend. If the number is high, we should all be celebrating at Tri-Ada, while if the number is low, we should all be asking very hard questions at Tri-Ada. In either case, this number should be plastered all over the Tri-Ada convention site, so people can put what they hear during the sessions in the context of reality. But the Ada world cannot go on any longer without knowing this percentage, and many others. To not know what percentage of the DoD is using Ada, fifteen years into Ada, must stop now. How in the next two months can this number be calculated? It turns out to be quick simple and quite inexpensive. Step one is to contact the people at DTIC, who maintain databases of every open DOD contract and final reports from all closed DoD reports. It would be quite simple to have DISA prepare a list of all open software projects, which include a brief abstract and the telephone number of the project manager. I don't know how big such a list is (I assume very big given the tens of billions the DoD spends on software procurement), but I do know that DTIC maintains this information in databases that are very straightforward to query. Step one should take one day. Step two would be to do some quick ranking of the project sizes on the list, in order to prepare a subsample of the full list from which the above percentage can be calculated in a statistically significant way. In the time remaining until Tri-Ada, there won't be enough time to contact everyone. Step two should take one day. Step three would be to start calling everyone on the list and ask them three questions: what language are you using, what is the expected number of lines of code, and how much money is being spent on software development. Admittedly not the most thorough sets of questions, but enough to draw some decent conclusions. (Information about the funding agency will be on the DTIC list as well as project duration I think). Budget six weeks of phone calls for step three. This will be the main cost item, all those telephone calls. Step four would be to type in all of the raw data into some statistical analysis program and generate the statistics and graphs, including the determination of the above percentage, which would be made into signs for Tri-Ada to be plastered everywhere at the convention site. Step four should take one day. Having spent ten years (WITH MY OWN MONEY sorry couldn't resist) doing such studies on a much more limited scale, I know that such a study is not only practical to do in the two months left, but will produce meaningful results. Now if the someone in the DoD can instruct the DTIC facility at the Hancsom Air Force Base to dump such a list for me, and arrange with the local Electronic Systems Division offices to give me a desk and a DoD telephone to use, I will be glad to volunteer my time over the next two months to collect the data, posting the raw data to comp.lang.ada. Alternatively, for those who don't trust my integrity or competence, someone at DISA headquarters working with someone at DTIC headquarters (both nearby each other in Virginia) could be tasked to do this quick study. Or someone working on one of the many Ada research efforts such as STARS or Ada9X who have the funding. There is too much Ada money floating about for someone not to be able to collect the data. But to go into this year's Tri-Ada without knowing this number is a irresponible management of taxpayer's dollars. There will be a lot of talk about DISA's DualUse plan at Tri-Ada (which sadly doesn't mention this percentage) - talk that will be wasted without knowing this number as providing a baseline. So how about it? Can someone in the Ada world calculate this number before Tri-Ada starts???? Greg Aharonian