Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada?

[Dmitry A. Kazakov <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On 9 Sep 2003 17:53:33 -0700, aek@vib.usr.pu.ru (Alexander
Kopilovitch) wrote:

>> >Why take all the mess and inefficiency of that JVM? Why not use Ada-to-C
>> >translation step? As far as I understand, the SofCheck has and can supply
>> >you that technology/toolset. And you may tell your customers that this is
>> >simply a great way to achive both goodies in one bottle: good high-level OO
>> >language for development and maintenance, and at the same time fashionable
>> >restricted C for deployment on targets.
>> 
>> They are managers, you know. Sometimes talking with them I am thinking
>> that all stoies about Martians capturing humans, washing them brains
>> and then returning them back are true. Managers are those returned! Or
>> maybe dressed Martians. (:-)) Today they keep on wanting Java. That's
>> it.
>
>Well, even if they are Martians that doesn't matter - why not export our
>products to Mars, or via Mars? They still will pay in a currency, which
>is valid here on Earth.

Yep.

>And Mars do not pose an immediate threat.

Enron, Worldcom, Deutsche Telecom, uncounted DOT-COM companies;
Mission critical software in Visual Basic; even NASA have admitted
problems with management. Isn't that a threat?

>Actually, they do not want specifically Java - they want fashionable
>things, and no more.

It was partially true three years ago, but presently there is too
little resources to spend them on bells and whistles.

>And furthemore, they want fashionable things just
>because they consider them as relatively safe things. They are responsible
>for decisions (or at least for propositions, which may lead to decisions),
>so they feel themselves liable for future failures. And they know well,
>that the punishment for a failure probably will be heavier if the
>decision resulted in the failure somehow deviated from a perceived
>"industry standard". They know that probably nobody will investigate
>the details and motives, but instead the manager will be found guilty
>for failure to maintain the industry standart (or state-of-art).

In most cases they do want a real and necessary thing. And they want
this thing for less money and yesterday. For what ever reason, they
are convinced that a funny technology X will save the money and time.
So either you have to come with this technology, or to present
something already working in a way they understand as "working". The
best way to do both.

This is why in my view Ada-to-JVM and Ada-to-DOT-NET should be on the
top of priority list to make Ada popular. An alternative could be Ada
virtual machine and Ada OS, but they are out of sight.

>So, a manager will agree to deviate from a fashionable thing only if
>he thinks that the *weighted" risk for him will be lower with this
>deviation.

He will never agree. "Never try to convince a manager." This is the
first law of management. (:-))

>Alternatively, you may provide him a solid argumentation
>(which he find satisfactory for the possible future self-defence)
>for that you propose is not a deviation, but actually the true
>industry standard for the case.

The second law is "Do whatever you have to".
And the third law is "Things you are doing should convince a manager
that he had convinced you"

>> Seriosly, one good thing about JVM has is a large library of widgets
>> and communication protocols. To convince a manager your demo
>> application should have all that and works on his PDA. Once you get a
>> contract, you can slowly drag them into the right direction. But only
>> then.
>
>Well, so you, perhaps, should separate application's "front-end"
>from the application's "engine" in your overall design, and then
>give that "front-end" to some cheap subcontractors, giving then
>your specifications *in Ada* (they will quickly learn some Ada
>for that, because that will be part of their work, and you know
>that this is not difficult for cheap subcontractors -:), and
>monitoring them with your QA. Those subcontractors will provide
>you that "front-end" in Java for demo and prototyping purposes,
>while you will be free from all that mess.

Where you saw cheap subcontractors? (:-))

>And for those customer's
>managers you may explain that your technology is a great combination
>of a solid software engineering methods and technique for fundamental
>issues of the project and a modern, state-of-art (Java) technology
>for data communication and data presentation.

Nobody will allow you to do same thing twice. The customer will fire
you if he discover how you spend his money. In most cases they wish a
precise control over how many people are working on the project and
what exactly they are doing. I never saw a customer, who would say,
here is NN bucks and X is the deadline. That would be an end of the
world we live in. (:-))

---
Regards,
Dmitry Kazakov
www.dmitry-kazakov.de