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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e29c511c2b08561c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: stt@henning.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft) Subject: Re: Is the "Ada mandate" being reconsidered? Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 159418063 sender: news@inmet.camb.inmet.com (USENET news) x-nntp-posting-host: henning.camb.inmet.com references: <4peu0v$rfq@news15.erols.com> organization: Intermetrics, Inc. newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-06-10T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Peggy Byers (byersmp@erols.com) wrote: : I work for a large defense contractor developing standard : transportation systems for the US Army. I am currently working in C, : but I am indebted to Ada and a few good Ada books for taking me from a : COBOL/4GL coder to a pretty fair software engineer. Another system : within our project developes for MS-DOS Character mode using Ada and : AdaSage. The user community is asking for a GUI version running under : Windows NT. They are also suggesting a language other than Ada : because it is there understanding that "the Ada mandate has been : lifted". Do they know something I don't know? Who is responsible for : deciding whether the Ada mandate stays in place? More interesting, perhaps, is why they want to use a different language. Can you identify some of the reasons (independent of whether they are "good" or "bad")? The only way Ada will succeed in the long run is if "they" (whoever "they" may be in any particular case) choose Ada on its merits, not on the basis of some "mandate." Even in a case where the mandate applies, I would encourage people to understand, and publicize if possible, the considerations involved in making a language selection. Only by truly understanding these considerations can progress be made toward making Ada a more attractive *choice*. In my experience, if you focus on the underlying reasons, there are better possibilities to affect the decision, whereas just hammering on the "mandate" or equivalent top-down considerations, you run the risk of creating an unhappy and unsatisfiable customer/user. : Mike Byers : Computer Science Corp. : Fort Lee, VA : byersm@lee-dns.army.mil : byersmp@erols.com -Tucker Taft stt@inmet.com http://www.inmet.com/~stt/ Intermetrics, Inc. Cambridge, MA USA