Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 11/03/84 (WLS Mods); site escher.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!escher!doug From: doug@escher.UUCP (Douglas J Freyburger) Newsgroups: net.columbia Subject: Re: Old fashion computing practices @ NASA Message-ID: <51@escher.UUCP> Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 00:09:06 EDT Article-I.D.: escher.51 Posted: Sat Aug 17 00:09:06 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 04:53:32 EDT References: <1079@cbdkc1.UUCP>, <1073@ames.UUCP> <1006@hou2h.UUCP> Organization: NASA/JPL, Pasadena, CA Lines: 34 > A film was produced and shown at several centers describing the > "crisis" in software engineering. All these efforts lead me to > believe that Headquarters has perhaps realized that something > needs to be done NASA-wide to help the situation. > > I am not aware of any systems running UNIX yet. There are plenty of unix machines at JPL, with "escher" on the net, and at least one other (in robotics) to follow by the end of the year. There are also several Symbolics machines at JPL now. No mainframes newer than UniHack 1100s (Sperry, now), though. NASA in general IS working a catch-up game with computers now. We're getting better, but we have a long way to go. There is a huge project that was speced in Ada before Ada compilers existed, so last year they agreed to do it in ForTran. The memo said that the ForTran code should not be self-documenting, but should be read-through with the spec and the PDL side-by-side. Does it maybe sound like someone in management still doesn't believe still software modernization is a good idea? :-) -- Doug Freyburger DOUG@JPL-VLSI, DOUG@JPL-ROBOTICS, JPL 171-235 ...escher!doug, doug@aerospace, Pasadena, CA 91109 etc. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are far too ridiculous to be associated with my employer. Unix is a trademark of Bell Labs, VMS is a trade mark of DEC, and there are others that I'm probably forgeting to mention.