ted@grebyn.com (Ted Holden) (03/25/90)
A few final comments here (a real diatribe = 100+ lines...) From: Bill Wolfe, Clemson >>From ted@grebyn.com (Ted Holden): >> [alleged problem with Ada:] >> o Major project many months behind schedule (e.g. >> STASNFINS, space telescope, WISS etc.) > That's interesting, Ted... according to the Proceedings of the > Eighth Annual National Conference on Ada Technology (p. 140), > STANFINS-R was completed on time and within budget, and it was > observed that the Ada code ran significantly faster than its COBOL > counterpart. This is despite the fact that STANFINS-R had to take > raw COBOL programmers and train them to be Ada Software Engineers, > despite the fact that a CICS binding did not exist when the project > began (and therefore had to be created during the project), and despite > the fact that a Datacom/DB interface also had to be forced into existence. > Not only was the Army's Information Systems Software Development Center > tremendously pleased with the results, the Air Force has just announced > its decision to use STANFINS-R as its financial software system as well. > Any other flat-out lies you'd like to spread? > Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu In the current (March 19) issue of Government Computer News, page 62, we read that the SAT for STANFINS is now scheduled for May of this year. Actually, that's a reschedule, and probably one of several. Major General Alonzo E. Short is quoted in the article as follows: "We are going to have to spawn something in Ada - a system that has been planned, developed, and placed on the street in such a way that someone can say, 'Ada is solving my problem'. Because such a system has not been delivered yet, a fair assessment is that the jury is still out on whether Ada can be used efficiently in a large information system. Many of us are standing on the sidelines awaiting the outcome to see how Ada works for a large MIS. If we don't start sharing the good news, we will soon have to start sharing the bad news..." Come on Wolfie, make my day: call General Short a liar. ................................................................ Dirty Laundry = fix a few things, old code recompiles with five minutes of work on new compilers (add function profiles to old C programs) Up Shit Creek = any of the real fixes needed would break the language; two versions of Ada maintained for all times afterwards (as if one version wasn't bad enough). ................................................................. True Meaning of the term 'FIVE Year Plan': >From: Robert I. Eachus, Mitre >The same thing seems to be happening on Ada 9X. There is a >groundswell developing to fix a few small things NOW, and leave the >rest til later. >It will probably take five years to get a good proposal >together. I also think that that is a minimum time to study some of >these issues and come up with something that mixes cleanly with the >existing language... Translation into plain English: "By that time, I'll be living in another town, doing something else for a living, maybe even using a different name, yeah... and some other poor sucker can deal with THIS bullshit..." Ted Holden HTE
wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu (Bill Wolfe) (03/27/90)
From ted@grebyn.com (Ted Holden): >> STANFINS-R was completed on time and within budget, and it was >> observed that the Ada code ran significantly faster than its COBOL >> counterpart. This is despite the fact that STANFINS-R had to take >> raw COBOL programmers and train them to be Ada Software Engineers, >> despite the fact that a CICS binding did not exist when the project >> began (and therefore had to be created during the project), and despite >> the fact that a Datacom/DB interface also had to be forced into existence. > >> Not only was the Army's Information Systems Software Development Center >> tremendously pleased with the results, the Air Force has just announced >> its decision to use STANFINS-R as its financial software system as well. > > In the current (March 19) issue of Government Computer News, page 62, we > read that the SAT for STANFINS is now scheduled for May of this year. > Actually, that's a reschedule, and probably one of several. Now let's inquire as to WHY there was a reschedule. I called the Chief of the U.S. Army's Field Accounting Systems Division and found that STANFINS-R had been rescheduled SOLELY TO COMPLY WITH GRAMM-RUDMAN. The rescheduling enabled enough work to be deferred into the following year to permit the current-year budget to meet the Gramm-Rudman budget constraints. ALL Government projects are subject to such rescheduling!! & Major General Alonzo E. Short is quoted in the article as follows: & & "We are going to have to spawn something in Ada - a system that has & been planned, developed, and placed on the street in such a way & that someone can say, 'Ada is solving my problem'. And STANFINS-R is precisely that system. & Because such a system has not been delivered yet, a fair assessment & is that the jury is still out on whether Ada can be used & efficiently in a large information system. True, but the system is 1.8 million lines of code, on schedule and within budget, and rapidly approaching its scheduled delivery date, so the jury won't have very long to deliberate. Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu