SBIRS, Ada and Ignorance
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From: Robert Love on 22 Dec 2005 11:25 Let me quote from the December 19th "Space News" article entitled Pentagon Scales Back SBIRS Program. For those who don't know, SBIRS is a multi satellite program to detect missile launches via infra red sensors. It is way behind and billions over budget, mostly due to the sensor and bad initial design. Air Force Sectretary Michael Wynne is quoted as saying: One of the biggest problems with SBIRS lies with its opearting software, which is based on a programming langauge called Ada that was developed in the 1970's, Wynne said. "Ada is a program that is not popular any longer," Wynne said. "It is a software design that was literally invented around the time DOS was invented. DOS is no longer even being talked about nor should Ada be, but we still have Ada-based programmers trying to do it." The Air Force hopes to use a more modern language like C+ (yes, they used a single +) for SBIRS follow-on system, Air Force Undersecretary Ronald Sega told reporters in a Dec. 15 briefing at the Pentagon. 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.
From: Björn Persson on 22 Dec 2005 12:12 Michael Wynne must have been misquoted. He clearly didn't talk about Ada but about that obscure language called ADA that we sometimes hear about. ;-) -- Bj?rn Persson PGP key A88682FD omb jor ers @sv ge. r o.b n.p son eri nu
From: Jeffrey R. Carter on 22 Dec 2005 13:48 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. -- Jeff Carter "Go and boil your bottoms." Monty Python & the Holy Grail 01
From: Robert Love on 22 Dec 2005 16:25 In <hyCqf.5074$mj1.1275(a)newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net> 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.
From: tmoran on 22 Dec 2005 17:16
>Let me quote from the December 19th "Space News" article entitled >... >is a software design that was literally invented around the time DOS was >invented. DOS is no longer even being talked about nor should Ada be, >... > The Air Force hopes to use a more modern language like C+ (yes, they Of course "The C Programming Language" was published 5 years before the Ada 83 RM, and Ada 95, like C++, is about 10 years old. Perhaps for this real-time, satellite based anti-missile system he means Microsoft's .NET language, C#. Does "Space News" print letters to the editor with factual corrections? Pointing out the ignorance of someone in authority is always amusing. But could it possibly be that this fellow just wants to give a new contract to some big contributor, er, company to postpone the demise of SBIRS till after he has moved elsewhere? |