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- Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
- Path: sparky!uunet!world!srctran
- From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
- Subject: Beginning of End of Ada Mandate
- Message-ID: <C0EusD.JG3@world.std.com>
- Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 02:26:37 GMT
- Lines: 67
-
-
- A recent news article in Government Computer News seems a good basis for
- my 1993 News Year Prediction: that some time in the next two years, '93/94,
- the Ada Mandate will be retracted/recalled/eradicated.
-
- (Keep in mind, to avert some of the flames, that none of my arguments or
- general interests, implictly or explicitly, are based on the technical merits
- of the grammar and syntax of the Ada language. Give me a really good Turbo
- Ada, and I'd probably use nothing else on my PCs.)
-
- CONTINUAL PENTAGON DISSENSION/DISINTEREST IN ADA
-
- Paul Strassman, as I have pointed out before, does not regard Ada highly.
- And when the DoD computing czar, currently sweeping every DoD computer under
- his belt (and getting away with it over service turf walls), does not highly
- regard Ada, you can start kissing the Mandate goodby. Never have spoken to him
- personally, so my belief in this statement is mostly based on the fact that he
- publicly never mentions in the context of defense computing. Case in point:
- The November 30, 1992, issue of InformationWeek (widely read in the corporate
- IS world) has a two page article on the Pentagon's and Strassman's CIM effort
- and DMRD 918. In the article, he is amply quoted about the incredible size
- and complexity and cost about these efforts. A perfect opportunity, as has
- been the case in many other articles in the corporate computing press that I
- have read in the past few years, there is absolutely NO mention of Ada. All
- he has to do is say something simple like "Yea, the reorganization effort is
- complex, but one strong foundation is our language standardization with Ada".
- He has never said, or insisted (the press will print anything from officials),
- anything about Ada in these perfect opportunities to help push Ada outside
- of the defense world.
-
- To support my contention on Strassman's position, here is the news item from
- Government Computer News 1/4/93, page 44:
- The Defense Department plans to reuse code written in languages other than
- Ada, a key Defense Information Systems Agency executive told a vendor audience
- this month. Denis Brown, director of DISA's Center for Information Management,
- said Ada is the foundation of the department's reuse program. But it is "not
- the only language which is currently in our software reuse repository", he
- said at a breakfast this month sponsored by market researchers Input Inc. in
- Vienna, VA. That statement suggested to some in the audience that DOD's
- commitment to Ada is wavering in the rush to cut information systems costs
- and standardize on a Cobol system, the newly rechristened Defense Business
- Management System, rather than the STANFINS Redesign, the Army's nearly
- completed financial system that is written in Ada.
- Paul Strassman, director of Defense Information and Corporate Information
- Management czar, "is a very pragmatic ideologue", Brown responded. He said the
- system DFAS selected incorporated fourth-generation and fifth-generation
- software technology, and that was the important thing". STRASSMAN "DIDN'T
- HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEM WITH" THE CHOICE OF A SYSTEM NOT WRITTEN IN ADA,
- BROWN ADDED, " .... HE LOVES TO SURPRISE PEOPLE".
-
- Kiss of death for the Ada mandate.
-
- ==============================================================================
-
- Thus my prediction of its demise within two years. (Long enough for the DoD
- to fund a study arguing the Mandate's demise, to save face. Hey, I'll write
- it, and even be nice).
-
-
- Gregory Aharonian
- Source Translation & Optimization
- Happy New Year!!!!
- --
- **************************************************************************
- Greg Aharonian
- Source Translation & Optimiztion
- P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178
-