Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!violet!afscian
From: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: ISE deadlines missed (was Emacs Eiffel mode)
Message-ID: <16636@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 89 23:40:18 GMT
References: 
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Distribution: comp
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 26

In article  jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) writes:
>I too, was told on numerous ocassions, that "we will start shipping
>next Monday".  However, we got a call a couple of days ago saying our
>tape was being made - so I hope to have 2.2 very soon.  It will be
>nice when our industry develops to the point where expected ship dates
>become more real.  I can't speak for ISE and other companies, but
>where I have worked in the past, the sales and marketing folks seemed
>to be compelled to make false claims to the customers about shipping
>dates, even when told by the engineers up front that it just couldn't
>be done.  Maybe if more of us start using Eiffel....:-)
Obviously, using Eiffel hasn't helped ISE eliminate these sort of problems.
This type of experience does not look good for a company that advertises
"Eiffel is the industrial application of software engineering techniques".
ISE gives you "incredible support" and (with Eiffel) "can solve
your problems both today and tomorrow". [Dr.Dobbs, Sept. 1989]
A company that makes these sort of statements has to back them up
with high-quality software delivered on time, not promises.

Lest I sound overly critical of ISE, I thoroughly enjoyed reading
the OOSC book and most of Dr.Meyer's published articles, so I'm
not anti-Eiffel. I would like to see Eiffel prevail over C++
but this will take nuturing and commitment to ISE's seminal customer base.
--
Anthony
//// Anthony Scian afscian@violet.uwaterloo.ca afscian@violet.waterloo.edu ////
"I can't believe the news today, I can't close my eyes and make it go away" -U2