Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!petsd!peora!joel From: joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) Newsgroups: net.arch Subject: Re: Scientific Computing and mips Message-ID: <1603@peora.UUCP> Date: Mon, 9-Sep-85 10:31:37 EDT Article-I.D.: peora.1603 Posted: Mon Sep 9 10:31:37 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 11-Sep-85 05:35:07 EDT References: <419@kontron.UUCP> <2300001@uicsl> <1093@ames.UUCP> <1119@ames.UUCP> <1573@peora.UUCP> <72@l5.uucp> <734@umd5.UUCP> Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl. Lines: 37 >>Can I write a prototype first? Ooops, now we have a political problem. >>Management says yes and then ships the prototype. You never get to do a >>rewrite and you have to support the prototype. Pretty soon you give up >>prototyping... > >This is one of the advantages of working for a government agency and not for >a private firm. A lot less pressure for results yesterday. I suspect this >has a *LOT* to do with the finest software coming from research labs (BTL) >and from universities (BSD?). >Ben Cranston ...{seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben zben@umd2.ARPA I don't think you expressed yourself quite correctly on this one. In the first place one of your examples (BTL) isn't a government agency. In the second place, I've worked for the federal government and there are plenty of scheduling pressures. Of course, most of the software development in the federal government is for internal consumption, but I don't think that the process is all that different from internal software development at a large corporation. The distinction you seem to be trying to make is between organization with research objectives and those with purely development objectives. But even there, it seems to me that schedules are the rule rather the exception. Students have to produce their projects on schedule, professors have publishing deadlines and grant renewals to worry about. A scientist doesn't know what the results of his experiments will be, but he usually has a schedule and a budget for completing them. I think it is more useful to distinguish between well designed and well mananged schedules and one that doesn't allow enough time to do the work or to do meaningful tracking of the project. But this is enough, if you have read Fred Brooks 'The Mythical Man Month' you've already read all about this, and if you haven't, then you should do so immediately. Joel Upchurch