From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 3 May 93 18:32:15 GMT From: world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: Re: Ichbiah's letter to Anderson: Here it is Message-ID: List-Id: Tuck writes: >At this point, rather than harping on the many mistakes of the >Ada community in the past, we should begin focusing on how >to improve things in the future. I believe that Chris Anderson >of the 9X project office is doing just that. AdaNet and the AdaIC >also both seem to be taking a more proactive role in trying to >spread the word. Other government-sponsored Ada-related organizations, >such as ASSET, seem still to be in a "hunkered-down" or "come-find-us" >mode, which is admittedly a shame. Of course if they don't read >comp.lang.ada, perhaps we need to find a more constructive way >to wake them up than via periodic flames. ( If they don't read comp.lang.ada, they should be fired. These efforts are not on the job training programs on how to exchange information in the electronic era. Let more qualified people run these efforts. ) Since current policy is being made by many of those who made the mistakes in the past, it is very important to harp on these issues. I am Bayesian, and by arguing that the past is a good predictor of the near future, I would say Ada is in deep trouble. The Ada9X office has no idea of the true views of Ada in the non-Mandated world, either the raw demographics of acceptance and usage, or in terms of public opinion. I will bet you an all-chocolate ice cream sundae at the Friendly's on Concord ave that the Ada9X office does not have and has not funded any sort of marketing/demographic survey of Ada usage and recognition outside the Mandate world. The office is developing policy in the blind. Chris Anderson's comments in Utah were way off the mark when it comes to non-Mandated OO interest in Ada. AdaNet, ASSET, VCOE and the rest of them are all bureaucratic enterprises gathering little real-world business experience to help future Ada efforts. If you want to see this first hand, ask ASSET for their components schema and look at it from a free market point of view - their schema would make Karl Marx happy, not Adam Smith. It's a shame no one is overseeing what is going on at ASSET. To rest any of Ada's future on these efforts is to admit defeat now. There is a much simpler way to resolve all of these issues and eliminate my endless pestering of everyone on c.l.a: first get the DoD to factor life-cycle mainentance and support costs properly into contracts, and then get rid of the Ada Mandate. Let market forces decide who is right and ensure that the DoD gets the most cost effective support to meets its development needs. The defenders of free markets and capitalism should not rely on such a socialist piece of legislation as the Mandate. Isn't that why we spent this country into debt fighting the Cold war? Greg Aharonian P.S. I don't do lunch, so I will want to collect my sundae after work. -- ************************************************************************** Greg Aharonian Source Translation & Optimiztion P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178