Re: re:state of Ada / Paige memo

[anon@anon.org (anon)]

J.A. "Drew" Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D who was the last directory of 
the Ada Joint Program Office put it the way it was since he 
was apart of it.

https://listserv.dtic.mil/listcgi/wa?A2=ind0608&L=it-cop-l&P=2765



Everybody does "overall life cycle cost analyses".  In the case of the US 
government all departments it is every four to six years, for the long term 
analysis but it is every year for the short term aka the fiscal budget. 

Every company want to buy the equipment once and unless something 
happens to they would like to keep it forever. But in the real world, that 
is not so. The office computer hardware is obsolete in 18 months to 2 
years.  The life of the software depends upon the application.  

Microsoft, as a shelf life of 2 to 3 years and at it end it can cause a 
complete re-purchasing of all software. Other OSes have different time 
table than Microsoft.

An accounting system last until the company's accounting changes, such 
as expansion into other business areas or merges with others. Or the 
accounting system can become obsolete at the next operating system 
release.

Another example is an analyzer system for cars, once these cars are no 
longer in the general area, then this system become obsolete.  That 
might be 5, 10, or even longer. Or it could be immediate, if no one 
drives this car in the shops area.

In a true simplistic example, every time one goes to the market they does 
a cost analyses. In food, its brand, packing, and flavor. Now in electronic 
it might be features version price. And in all case its shelf and usage life. 

Like today, buying a VCR when DVDs are replacing VCR. But if price is a 
factor or easy of find equipment to play the program on, you might choose 
VCR. Because how many grandparents have DVD players. Of course, this 
is changing all the time, because what next after HD-DVD. You can make 
book on it, there is something and it will make all forms of DVD obsolete.

"overall life cycle cost analyses" is a continual thing that is always being 
update by many factors. One factor change it might trigger an action based 
on the current "cost analyses" or for others it might take two or three 
factor changing to trigger such action.

As for Ada and the E. Paige (retired in 88) memo, well to many friends 
listen to their ex boss. They gave his opion more weight in a 
government decission than he should of had. 






In <PM000438DCAFA0934B@tilopa.unknown.dom>, Ed Falis <falis@verizon.net> writes:
>By the way, how many of the "overall life cycle cost analyses"
>recommended by the memo to decide the right language do you think
>actually happened in more than a desultory fashion?  I'm not aware of
>any, and I've worked for Ada vendors for the last 25 years.