Fwd: DOD, Please Wake up on Ada

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 13:20:41 PDT
> From: Jim Opfer (via RadioMail) <opfer () radiomail net>
> Subject: Fwd: DOD, Please Wake up on Ada
> To: President () whitehouse gov
> Cc: vice.president () whitehouse gov, opfer () radiomail net
>
> Dear Mr President,
>
> Please have Vice President Gore put this on his re-inventing government agenda.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Jim
> ----- Forwarded Message
>
> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 13:06:54 PDT
> From: Jim Opfer (via RadioMail) <opfer () radiomail net>
> Subject: DOD, Please Wake up on Ada
> To: bbigelow () radiomail net, hanlon () sc2 hq af mil, jgrimes () decg2154 c3i osd mil,
> hipp () radiomail net, sam_boyle () mcimail com, frank_ricotta () mcimail com,
> west13 () radiomail net, farber () cis upenn edu
> Cc: farber () cis upenn edu, scott () millennium com, glenw () radiomail net,
> opfer () radiomail net, jgraves () decg2154 c3i osd mil, pfarkas () radiomail net,
> gates () radiomail net, travisma () sgate com, Sem6%21sq%acsc () acscsvr2 au af mil
>
> I am reading in a trade rag that the Ada Industry trade association, the Ada
> Software Alliance (ASA), has announced that they are launching a major
> campaign to promote the use of Ada in commercial markets.
>
> The campaign's goal is to increase the awareness and usage of Ada in commercial
> software markets.
>
> Initial efforts will focus on "raising awareness" in the commercial marketplace
> and will include a toll-free number.
>
> They intend follow up via direct mail, telemarketing, press conferences,
> seminars, etc etc.
>
> This marketing campaign will start in January 1994 and they will spend $1
> million on it.
>
> THESE FOLKS DON'T GET IT!
>
> Ada will NEVER be a commercial standard unless Bill Gates or IBM adopt it.  All
> the marketing hype in the world will not change what the commercial world is
> doing in an industry where the market drives standards, NOT the DOD.
>
> The COld War is over, the DOD claims to be going to best commercial practices,
> and they are stupid enough to think they can change the momentum of the
> commercial world......come on!!!!
>
> We all need to start writing our congressmen before DOD starts dumping millions
> into this marketing campaign.
>
> Jim Opfer