ARPA illustrates contradiction of Paige's COTS memo

[srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)]

    Once again, ARPA illustrates the meaninglessness of Paige's memo trying
to clarify COTS versus Ada Mandate. In short, Perry's memo said "Use COTS",
Paige's memo said "Use COTS. Glue with Ada", and now ARPA illustrates the
contradiction with "Use COTS. Ignore Ada. Sniff glue".

    What am I talking about beyond trying to come up with a cute phrase :-)
Well, the October 31 issue of Computerworld, cover page paragraph and all of
page 28, has this very rah-rah piece about ARPA's Simulation-Based Design
initiative concurrent engineering design tools creation that ARPA is seeding
with money to create a large commercial market.  It is a great PR article
for ARPA and once again illustrates what can happen when part of the DoD
actually cares about something and wants to make it happen.

    The article goes on and on, mentioning successes in defense and commercial
applications, big name companies like Caterpillar, development of standards,
etc.  Great article. Lots of people picking up tips in an article about the
DoD's leading software agency.  WHERE THE HELL IS ADA?

    Oh, wait a minute - crossfire between DoD brass memos.  To quote the
article:
		"For software, ARPA is using several commerically
		available CAD packages, surrounded by C++ software
		"wrappers" written by ARPA contractors.  The
		resulting "megaprograms" treat individual programs
		as linked objects".

Commercial CAD packages - Perry's COTS memo.  Surrounded by C++ wrappers -
anti-Paige's COTS memo.  Megaprograms in C++ - anti-STARS, though pro-KBSA.
Reminds me of an article this month where the US Army endorses a C++ object
oriented database.  This all sounds like "Reefer Madness" to me.

Greg Aharonian