Re: US Army agrees with Admiral Tuttle, for AI and not-Ada

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

>Okay, Greg, you've waved you hand at it like a red kerchief, so I will
>take it by the horns:  What proportion of the Army's AI stuff is
>included in the survey?  I'm worried about your use of `extensive' and
>the impression a word like that will leave in the absence of context
>data.  After all, you're presenting this as a statistic (the worst of
>lies! :-).
>Jim Crigler

Jim,
	I don't claim my statistics that I post are accurate.  I will 
claim that they are the only statistics that do exist for Ada activities.
In fact someone from the Army challenge me about this particular statistic,
and my response was "Fine, show me a list of Army AI projects in Ada".
Until then, the Army does not support the use of Ada for AI.  What percentage
of Army AI is in Ada?  I doubt anyone in the country knows, especially all
of the DoD software reuse centers, which should be tracking this type of
stuff.  My databases have it - so should these professionally run operations.

  	In general (or in admiral) one reason that I don't believe the DoD
really gives a gastrointestinal-byproduct about Ada is that the DoD refuses
to collect data revealing exactly what is going on with the language inside
and outside the DoD.  In the business world, such ignorance of demographics
is a sure route to bankruptcy.  In the DoD, it seems to be a route to
promotions.  At that rate Ada is going, some day there will be courses in
Adanecrolexicography (I am writing this while reading an Atlantic article).

	I presented a ton of data at WadaS showing that Ada use is negligible
outside the Mandated World, and inside the Mandated World it is whimsical.
Admittedly, my data isn't the most accurate (I don't have the plush rugs like
SEI does) but it is the only data that exists, a sad commentary on DoD support
for Ada.  Well, at least I got a pat on the head for my data.

	So please don't consider my data to be reliable statistics in the
absolute sense, only in the relative sense.  And until the DoD funds a real
study of programming language demographics, they will never be able to 
effectively address the problems facing Ada, assuming that they care at all.
-- 
**************************************************************************
 Greg Aharonian
 Source Translation & Optimization
 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178