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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ac39a12d5faf5b14 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-17 17:11:11 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!kibo.news.demon.net!demon!diablo.theplanet.net!diablo.theplanet.net!psiuk-p2!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Rant! (was) Development process in the Ada community Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 09:19:53 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <3CB46975.90408@snafu.de> <3CB77A6B.5090504@snafu.de> <184076622a7c648f157c56e417bd86d4.48257@mygate.mailgate.org> <3CB9375F.8040904@snafu.de> <3CBCE84E.811EA1C3@adaworks.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1019049595 20719 136.170.200.133 (17 Apr 2002 13:19:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 17 Apr 2002 13:19:55 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:22691 Date: 2002-04-17T13:19:55+00:00 List-Id: "Richard Riehle" wrote in message news:3CBCE84E.811EA1C3@adaworks.com... > > OK, let's get this straight. The DoD has not decided to quit Ada. I still > correspond with former Assistant Secretary of Defense Emmett Paige > from time to time and I gather that one of his disappointments is the > misinterpretation of his memo abrogating the Ada mandate. If I may I think the problem was a huge misjudgement of how his memo would be interpreted. Maybe Secretary Paige didn't intend for the memo to be interpreted as the DoD abandoning Ada, but that sure was the net effect. Perhaps part of it was willfull misinterpretation on the part of some who hated Ada and The Mandate so they could use it as an excuse to rush off and do what they wanted to in the first place. Perhaps there was a kind of a logical inference on the part of others that this is what it meant: "You used to insist that Ada was the right answer and now you're saying 'go forth and select whatever makes sense' so I can reasonably guess that this amounts to 'Ada was a mistake'..." Sometimes perception *is* reality. Especially when we're dealing in a political & social realm. Once The Mandate was instituted, any attempt to back off from it was going to be perceived as weakness and lack of resolve. Once that chink showed up in the armor, the Ada Haters of America charged in to exploit it with gusto and the more ambivalent ones in the crowd stuck their fingers into the air to find which way the wind was blowing and decided it wasn't towards Ada. Maybe The Mandate was a mistake to begin with. Maybe it should have been abandoned. But if abandonment of The Mandate had to be done and there wasn't a desire to simultaneously abandon Ada, then perhaps the DoD could have done more to show it still thought Ada was a good idea and that it supported it. (DoD could have allocated significant money to build development tools, etc., that might have made Ada a more attractive choice, for example.) Instead, they effectively said "you're on your own - sink or swim..." which clearly added to the perception that DoD was "abandoning" Ada. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com