Re: Ada's Slide To Oblivion ...

["Anders Wirzenius" <anders.wirzenius@pp.qnet.fi>]

Jerry Petrey @west.raytheon.com> <"jdpetrey wrote in message
<3C5EBC07.6A27AE8A@west.raytheon.com>...

...

>How true Richard.  Here at Raytheon Missile Systems, all our new missile
>software is going to C++.  The managers listen to the young engineers who
>only know or want to work with C++. There are a few older program like the
one
>I'm on that uses Ada (thank goodness).  Most of these were started by ex-C
>programmers and it is amazing how much like C their Ada code is.
>I keep fighting for more Ada usage but I keep getting those same old
>arguments - the tools are more expensive, Ada is dead and won't be
supported
>in the future, C++ programmers are easier to get, ... ad nauseam.
>Yet they keep stressing how important it is that these missiles work
>right every time - it is a frustrating battle to make them understand.
>I applaud your efforts at Adaworks in teaching Ada.  This is want companies
>need - some in-depth courses that train software engineers to think in Ada
>not just translate C code to Ada.  I hope it has an impact on Ada's future.
>
>Jerry

Why not let the money speak.
I used to work for a Norwegian company (Computas) where at least at that
time every work effort was connected to a project number. Every hour spent
in the company was booked on a project number. We were thus able to go into
details to examine how many hours were spent on each software system.
Suggest, Jerry, to your boss that you start to do similarily at your
department. Then sit down at the end of the year, go throuh the figures, and
vote for the most profitable software. Advice him not to listen to people
complaining that all their time is then going to report what they did during
the day. The reporting system worked excellently in the company mentioned
above and has been working in other companies that I have worked for.
By the way, by extending the booking system a little, you are able to come
up with numbers to present a traditional quality cost division, namely
preventive costs, testing costs, internal error correction costs and
external error correction costs. This is easily set up for a company which
have minimal material costs compared to labour costs.

Anders