Re: SBIRS, Ada and Ignorance

Since my name (creatively spelled, but I think Robert meant me) came up in the
discussion below, I will research the matter and see if I can get an email off
to the
right people from my DoD account.

I'll probably get myself in trouble, but it won't be the first time.

As to the term "bozo," none of the USAF people involved deserve this
appellation. They
are simply reacting to the ignorance about Ada that seems to prevail throughout
the
larger software community. My experience with the USAF decision-makers is that
they are doing their best to make responsible decisions on behalf of the
National
Defense. They are being misinformed by contractors whose self-interest
sometimes
preempts what ought to be their better judgement.

I must say that I have heard high-ranking DoD people denigrate Ada based on
their
own experience. One Admiral spoke to a group about how hard it was to teach
people Ada in his command. He talked of the credentials of the person hired to
do the teaching and noted that, "even this person, with many years of experience
in computer science," could not make Ada clear to the students.

There are some unique differences in Ada from other languages. Unless we make
those
differences clear the students will be discouraged from using it. Too often
the language
is taught by people who do themselves understand it. To be fair, the same is
true of much
of what passes for C++ instruction. The difference is that C++ looks like C
and it gets
a lot of good press. This, in spite of its being one of the most error-prone
languages ever
to be used by anyone.

I'll do what I can.

Richard Riehle
(note the correct spelling of my name)


"Robert Love" <rblove@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:20051222152554655-0600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> In <hyCqf.5074$mj1.1275@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Jeffrey R.
> Carter wrote:
> > Robert Love wrote:
> >
> >> Lord, there is so much wrong here. Where to start. Is it even worth
> >> it to try and educate the Air Force? I suppose I'll try and write
> >> one of these bozos once I calm down but I would say this is a huge
> >> slam against our favorite language.
> >
> > If we all knew how to contact these bozos, we could all write them.
> > That might be more impressive than just a message from you.
>
> And I'm just a bozo to the Air Force brass. I wonder if we have a
> senior statesman who could get their attention. Richard Rheile? Tucker
> Taft? Damn, do any Congressional Medal of Honor winners program in Ada?
>
> I did write a sincere, polite letter (postal, not e-mail) to the
> Secretary but I don't expect it will get past his layer of filters. I
> tried to refute his points and stressed the need for good design and
> software development processe. I concluded that he should have the AF
> Academy software experts or other independent group investigate the real
> reason why the software was a failure.


.

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