Give a Tri-Ada award to General Sullivan

Give a Tri-Ada award to General Sullivan

[Gregory Aharonian]

    There are some discussions about achievement awards to be given out at
the upcoming Tri-Ada.  Given Ada's continual stagnation, this is somewhat
hilarious, but if it must be, here's my suggestion for an award and recipient:

	BIGGEST BLOWN CHANCE TO PROMOTE ADA:  General Gordon Sullivan

Admittedly this is a tough award to select a winner, there are so many worthy
candidates, but given the following assumptions, his choice was obvious:

	1) The DoD is committed to Ada
	2) The DoD realizes Ada's market share is minimal everywhere
	3) The DoD hierarchy should exploit all possible opportunities
	   to publicly promote Ada

Given these assumptions, how did General Sullivan blow a perfect chance to
promote Ada in Fortune magazine?  In the September 19, 1994, Fortune magazine
(something many people spending their own money read in the business world)
has a fantastic article about "New Ideas From the Army" - all the great new
things that the Army is doing (and are doing - Fortune, Forbes, Business Week,
Economist and similar magazines don't write fluff).  I'd give my right arm
for Fortune to write a similar story about my business - in fact, I'd give
the right arms of everyone at DISA if Fortune wrote a similar story about my
business (which would also stop more Ada policies from being hatched).  The
article is a great PR piece, and I am sure many businesspeople reading the
article will consider adopting some of the Army practices mentioned.

A good deal of the article discusses General Sullivan's plans to build up
the Information Age army - "an Army of 2010 that is joined by electronic
mail, plus digitally transmitted data and video pictures.  The effect on
command and control will be staggering."   A variety of successful Army
computer efforts are mentioned in the article.  Gee maybe some of the readers
might wonder what software technologies the Army is using to build the future;
if it works for the Army maybe it would work for their companies.

Once again, a perfect opportunity for someone very visible in the DoD to
publicly embrace and tout Ada in a forum important in the arena where Ada
commercialization will take place.  Someone high up in the DoD to mention Ada
in the light, instead of the shadows of Tri-Ada and STSC.

AND ONCE AGAIN SOMEONE FROM THE DOD SCREWS UP SUCH AN OPPORTUNITY.

He didn't have to say Ada in every sentence, though it would have been nice.
But couldn't he have stressed Ada enough to the reporter in the emphatic way
that everyone in the DoD loves Ada, so that Ada could have been mentioned
at least once in the article?  Why are people in the Mandated world so afraid
to publicly embrace Ada in the non-Mandated world?  Why can't these same great
lovers of Ada show some guts and take on ARPA, whose non-Ada stance will make
stillborn any Ada initiative coming out of DISA?  Why doesn't anyone complain
about the hypocrisy of KBSA in light of the Ada Mandate and STARS?  Why was
DISA afraid to ask for specific monies in their DualUse plan?  Why should
anyone on the outside believe anything in the good-old-boys Ada Mandated
world has changed?

Not making sure Ada was mentioned in the Fortune article is yet one more
signal that the DoD brass is still ambivalent about Ada, and as long as this
goes on, Ada commercialization is going nowhere but into a pool of red ink.
For this, in a very close race, the award (a C compiler from Intermetrics,
a C++ CASE tool from Alsys, and a C++ software engineering lecture from
Rational) goes to General Sullivan.

Greg Aharonian