Well, folks, I just read an excerpt of the NRC report.  They reached
some correct conclusions and a lot of incorrect conclusions.  It is
a little suprising that most of the report was  based on the
experience with Ada 83 rather than the opportunities with Ada 95,
and with little consideration for the growing interest in Ada 95
now that it is object-oriented.

I find more and more of my JOOP column readers becoming amenable
to Ada as they learn more about it. So now the DoD will turn its back
on Ada for logistics and financial systems, and other non-warfighting
applications based on the this report.  Wrong recommendation. Very wrong.

Not much we can do about it, now.  Greg Aharonian is probably laughing
so hard that he cannot keep his fingers trained on the keyboard long
enough to compose a reply chiding us abouit this ill-considered counsel.

So much for ObjectAda, RR Software's Claw product, X-Windows and CORBA
bindings, or any of the NT-targeted versions of Ada. I will restucture
my company to expand into other areas. No problem. The real loser will
be the Department of Defense, which we know has never managed software
policy well, and is about to embark on a new policy will lurch out
of control in the near future.  If they could not manage a single-language
policy, imagine the "Keystone Kops" scenario when they start to
manage a multi-language policy.  Sad. Sad. Sad.

I am feeling a little grumpy about this.  Grrrrrrr.   Double grrrrrrrrrr.


Richard

Richard Riehle
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AdaWorks Software Engineering
Suite 30
2555 Park Boulevard
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(415) 328-1815
FAX  328-1112