It just dawned on me why CNA might have said C vs. Ada was a "wash." CNA's "customer" was trying to decide which of two or more fielded Army systems to select as the basis for their system. I guess in _that_context_ the languages those systems were written in would be insignificant compared to questions of methodology and functionality. Similarly, in that context, the O.S. the systems are on would be evaluated differently than for a new system. Of course, I'm still speculating, so I could be way wrong. :-)