Re: Joint Strike Fighter

[Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <3BE813E4.C4797DDE@reges.org>, Rex Reges says...
>What about Ada? Like the Macintosh, Beta VCRs and the
>Vax, Ada's superiority is admired by those in the 
>know. That matters squat to management who want to 

I dislike such analogies. For one thing, I've used all three and remain
unimpressed by their supposed total superiority. For another, those are
*platforms*. Platforms have a whole set of issues languages don't. A more proper
analogy is with things that are "tools". You could also make analogies with
building materials. People don't like to use the proper analogies though,
because it doesn't easily lead to the point they'd like to make (and for good
reason). For another, I strongly believe that all those platforms became
marginalized because they were proprietary and were trying to fight open
standards. From that point of view, the analogy with Ada is even more off.

>I doubt that one could get several hundred Ada programmers
>in a pinch.  I couldn't hire six experienced Ada 
>contractors in six months! And try to get them to move

Personally I think you'd have trouble getting that many *true* C++ programmers
in six months too. Just about all the supposed C++ programmers I've run into
actually write C with "//" line comments. The place I work in is officially a
C++ shop, but I'd say we have more Ada developers in here than *real* C++
developers.

>to some tornado infested place like Oklahoma City (who knows
>what Fort Worth holds). Of course we could train C++

I probably would have let this whole message slide, but as an Ada developer who
just so happens to already live in "some tornado infested place" (Tulsa gets
more of them than OKC does), I have to admit this tweaked me a bit.

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