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Subject:
From:
James Squire <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
James Squire <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 7 Nov 1997 18:51:43 -0600
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AdaWorks <[log in to unmask]> 11/07/97
05:46pm wrote:

>I wonder if Mr. Paige has any idea the
>damage that has done with his recent
>directive.  Here in Silicon Valley, my
>colleagues in other software environments,
>even those at some of the defense
>contractors, have interpreted the directive
>as a clear statement that Ada is no longer
>important as a DoD language.  I was in the
>office of the CEO of one well-known DoD
>contractor recently who said, "Get with it
>Richard. Ada is dead, dead, dead."  His
>company has pulled out of the Ada
>marketplace entirely.

Although I smell similar foul breezes here,
my company (Boeing) does have a booth for
Tri-Ada '97 here in St. Louis which may be
some small antidote to your sad story (plug,
plug ;-).

>Some others are scrambling figure out how
>they can transition their Ada 83 to C++ in
>the next round of software upgrades.

Amazing.  Transitioning from C to Ada was
"too costly", but transitioning from Ada (83
no less) to C++ is a top priority.  I sniff
a hint of these foul breezes around here
too, though nothing concrete yet.  It would
certainly lend credibility to the notion
that the reason why Ada is losing is because
"it's no fun to program in Ada.  You can't
do cool stuff."

>Meanwhile, C++, a dreadful gargoyle of a
>language, continues to enjoy a place in the
>sun, or Java a place in Sun.  The more I
>look at C++ the more I realize how
>dangerous it is.  Nevertheless, I expect
>that more and more of our warfighters are
>going to be risking their lives on the
>quality of our C++ code.  Consequently, our
>responsibility is to do everything we can
>to ensure that, as Ada fades from
>prominence in our weapon systems, we
>encourage the C++ developers to use that
>language with extreme care.

Quite frankly, that is the area in which I
see the opportunity for me to excel, since I
do not have language-choice
responsibilities.  I advocate when I can
(and watch the eyes roll back in the sockets
- a depressing reaction to say the least),
but 99% of the time, that is not my place
(for all I know, if it were, I'd be horrible
at it anyway).
--
James Squire             Send my Spam to
mailto:[log in to unmask]
MDA^H^H^HBoeing St. Louis
      http://www.boeing.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that VMS is on the way out, it tips its
cap to Unix by implementing
the PIPE command.  Talk about locking the
barn door after the horse has
gotten away...  Opinions expressed here are
my own and NOT my company's
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ambassador, do you *really* want to know
what's going on down there
    right now?"
'Yes. Absolutely.'
"Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom. Boom! Have
a nice day."
'Fah. You can never get a straight answer
from anyone around here.'
        -- Ivanova and Londo, "A Voice in the
Wilderness II"

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