Re: Verdix kisses off Ada

[fedfil!news@uunet.uu.net (news)]

In article <EACHUS.93May17172041@spectre.mitre.org>, eachus@spectre.mitre.org (
Robert I. Eachus) writes:
*
*   In article <SRCTRAN.93May13124224@world.std.com>, srctran@world.std.com (Gr
egory Aharonian) writes:
*
*  > What will it take for the DoD to see the light and drop the Mandate?
*
*   In article <1060@fedfil.UUCP> news@fedfil.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:
*
*  > How about losing a war to an adversary which simply paid the $250 for a
*  > copy of Borland C++ at Comp-USA (and whose weapon systems thus all worked)
?
*
*     Let's see, what wars were decided recently, and what part did
*software play (both Ada and non-Ada).  Oh well, I guess Ted and Greg
*didn't want to know the answers after all...
*
*     In the Gulf War, the US had lots of FORTRAN which worked
*reasonably well, some Ada, which worked very well indeed, and probably
*some COTS C software in the PC's used by the company clerks.  Overall,
*it certainly looked like more (Allied) Ada would have resulted in
*fewer Allied casualties.  Do either of you have ANY data which would
*indicate otherwise?  I'd be very impressed by any details on how
*heroic efforts to modify COTS systems written in C or C++ managed to
*save the day, or even one life.
*
*					Robert I. Eachus

I do know that the entire software development community of the United
States has irrevocably standardized on C and C++, and that they've also
basically taken one look at Ada, and said "You've got to be kidding!"
I know that such complex software items as the varied flavors of UNIX,
the commercial databases, the commercial wordprocessors, Windows NT,
etc. etc. ad infinitum are all being written in C/C++.  They all work.
I know that to try to swim against this tide, DOD is going to end up
spending ten or more times the going rate for everything they ever
do in life, both time and money, and that that's no way to live.  They'll
have to reinvent every wheel;  Things which I simply order from the
Programmer's Connection (software reusability or something like that)
DOD will always have to reinvent from scratch.  I know for sure that
it is always safer to simply use something which is known to work than
to reinvent it.

Aside from all of that, history is full of examples of resources being
used wisely and well by the winning side:  the victory ship and the
escort carrier from WW-II are two such examples.


-- 
Ted Holden
HTE