munck@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Bob Munck) (06/18/86)
Larry, > my suggestion is to include in the SDE Request for Purchase ... a > requirement for the ability to easily upgrade to the future CAIS. The problem is that such a statement in an RFP is pure trouble. You're requiring the bidders to state how and at what cost and schedule they will do an unknown thing. By "unknown thing" I DON'T mean the upgrade to the future CAIS, but the creating of the "ability" to do so. Depending on the wording, this will inspire highly creative and completely content-free verbiage in the proposals; depending on the contract terms, it may give the chosen contractor a license similar to that which James Bond has. On the other hand, we do this kind of thing ALL THE TIME! I attended the same session in Houston (with a pocket tv for the Celtics) and felt that there was one fact that was so obvious that it didn't need to be stated. That is, the KIT/KITIA has been working for about half a decade toward meeting the same general requirements that the NASA SEE (SDE?) must fulfill. The CAIS 2 definition might not quite meet the schedule, but it's closer than anything else. Certainly the best bet for SEE is to go with the CAIS rather than start over. The definition will be in substantially final form when NASA needs it, just not completely through standardization. Heck, I'm working NOW on a CAIS 2 implementation for the 80386. BTW, I enjoyed the vehemence with which the NASA folk rejected any use of UNIX, both (I assume) the NJ original and mutations from east and west. They do understand the difference between a system that lets individual hackers and gurus churn out code and one that supports development of good software by teams of programmers. -- Bob Munck, MITRE