Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: How to pay for reusable software Message-ID: Date: 12 Apr 91 01:21:06 GMT References: <1991Apr3.231849.13410@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 24 >So whereas it might be nice to have a set of standard libraries for >dealing with the output of the Telekurs Ticker Service Adapter, the >number of users is sufficiently small and they are ignorant of (or >hostile to) each other and chances are none of them are going to ever >know enough about each other to make any reuse or resale possible. I think there are two kinds of reuse here. The first, which seems to be the one everyone is focusing on, is INTER-company reuse: writing software that other companies will buy and reuse on their projects. There is certainly some progress in this area (witness the Booch components from Rational's very own Grady Booch, not to mention stuff like X-windows, off-the-shelf mathematical/financial/database software, etc). But what I was specifically referring to in my original post was INTRA-company reuse: reuse from project to project within the same company. And here is where my comments about companies not thinking more than one fiscal quarter into the future apply. I've seen companies that are almost exclusively in the business of writing air defense systems write each new such system from scratch. This is clearly nuts, not to mention extremely expensive, but so it goes. -- * The opinions expressed herein are my own, except in the realm of software * * engineering, in which case I borrowed them from incredibly smart people. * * * * Rational: cutting-edge software engineering technology and services. *