> ..... At least in my hands, Word does not permit
> simple, reliable numbering of paragraphs. ....

That's one of the few features of Word I DON'T have trouble with.

> [U.S. defense industry transfers don't happen]... We have had two
> excellent database products written in Ada. Neither has been
> successfully commercialized. .....

In fact, you can't even get defense projects that need a database
to consider them.  Especially now that the Defense Information
Infrastructure's Common Operating Environment has made a list of
acceptable database engines that does NOT include RTDM or FIRM.

> I hate to be a wet blanket, but the frustrations of software
> engineers with poorly engineered software are NOT TYPICAL of
> the current market for most packaged software or software
> for the commerial market.  ......

Do I understand right?  You are saying that most commercial programmers
don't care that their software is crap?  I think that is true, so let me
address that point.

You then say we will waste resources if we don't recognize that fact.  I
say we do recognize that fact.  That's why we are so aggravated.  First
Bill Gates convinced the "man in the street" that frequent software
crashes are to be expected.  Then other companies began to believe it
(even MacOS is less reliable than it used to be).  And now the majority of
programmers believe it, too!  Or so it seems.

--
Wes Groleau
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wgroleau