Contractors submitting inaccurate Ada reuse surveys

Contractors submitting inaccurate Ada reuse surveys

[Gregory Aharonian]

    It seems that for some new RFPs, the DoD is requiring contractors
to submit surveys of reusable Ada software available and relevant to
the new project.  While it is a great idea (one I suggested three
years ago at an SEI symposium), I hear through the grapevine that the
contractors are abusing the process by submitting only cursory surveys
of available Ada reuse components.  I assume that they do this since
they know that noone in the DoD can assess such lists without access to
a comprehensive list of available reusable software, and other than my
large database (which no one in the DoD gives a damn about) there are no
comprehensive sources.

    It is this kind of hypocrisy that is undermining Ada acceptance.
The DoD imposes impossible-to-verify rules, the contractors submit
impossible-to-challenge reuse lists, everyone is happy, and DoD software
reuse is set back even more.  It's hard to remember that national
security is at stake here.

    My phone number is 617-489-3727.   If you are interested in submitting
honest lists of all of the relevant reusable software, call me (though I
have to charge because there is no room at the trough for little Greg).
If you are interested in keeping the contractors honest, call me and I'll
verify the thoroughness of their lists.  Otherwise, get rid of the RFP
requirement - it is one more Ada policy that undermines the language by
its flagrant disregard.

Greg Aharonian

-- 
**************************************************************************
 Greg Aharonian
 Source Translation & Optimization
 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178

Re: Contractors submitting inaccurate Ada reuse surveys

[David Tannen x8273]

This is a great idea from the DoD, but the DoD contracts people have no way of 
knowing
if code is really being reused.  Is code reuse being done when you rewrite <50%
 of
a package body for each new application?  Should a contractor be rewarded for t
his
kind of reuse?  Or should the developer's adjust their design to utilize the 
components that are available?


At last year's TriAda there was a great reuse tutorial given by JP Rosen.  He a
lso
wrote an article in CACM last year concerning Ada components.  His basic premis
e is
that we need to work more like a EE does.  When a EE is designing a circuit, he
will design for components that already exist (adjusting his wonderful design t
o
use as much off the shelf material as possible).  Most programmers (myself incl
uded)
tend to write the software ourselves, because we don't trust other people's cod
e.


Greg what are you going to do if the contractor submits a list of "in-house" 
components that will be reused?

David Tannen
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-- "Dependence on wizardry to mitigate the fundamental limitations of software
-- is called 'hacking'."  Grady Booch
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