Posted on 02/12/2025 12:55:26 PM PST by mairdie
Excellent!
BB and co don’t need to go back to data on such media.
Just reading all these old software names makes me feel much younger. I wonder if my hairline will go back to where it is supposed to be. Too much forehead these days.
That is food for bad dreams.
Too many poorly designed, stovepiped systems.
bookmark.
more bad dreams and nightmares “Windows for Warships”
However, some software engineers had misgivings. In April 2002 Bill Gates, appearing in his capacity as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, had given sworn testimony under oath to the US Courts.[9]
Gates’ testimony included statements that Microsoft Windows was indissoluble and could not be created in cut-down form. Paragraphs 207 to 223 of Gates’ testimony indicated that Windows had an entangled monolithic structure, rather than a structure organised in modular fashion.
Assuming Gates’ testimony to be true, these ‘pro-UNIX’ engineers felt that open-source UNIX, rather than Microsoft Windows, should be used as the foundation of future naval command systems and circulated their concerns within the company.
SMCS-NG as first deployment of “Windows for Warships”
SMCS-NG was created as a port to Microsoft Windows of the SMCS infrastructure and applications, a move which some commentators have termed “Windows for Warships”. The UK’s Defence Ministry later gave assurances, through questions in the UK parliament,[10][11] that this is a low risk use of Microsoft Windows.
However, some other suppliers have taken a different path. The consoles[12] for the new Sonar 2076 supplied by Thales Underwater Systems for the Astute class submarines, and which may be retro-fitted to other classes, are built as PCs running Linux rather than Windows. [citation needed]
Having developed SMCS-NG as an internal project, BAE Systems independently proposed to the MoD that the original SMCS equipment be replaced by its own, newer, version. After sea trials in HMS Torbay, the MoD awarded contracts to BAE Systems[13] for refit of SMCS-NG into most RN submarines, including the Vanguard fleet. Although the Defence Minister Adam Ingram told the UK Parliament in October 2004 that no decision had been made about conversion of the Vanguard fleet to run SMCS-NG,[14] the MoD placed the contracts the following month. By December 2008, all of the active Royal Navy submarines had been retrofitted with SMCS-NG.
Unlike with previous versions of SMCS, the software is supplied as a single-fit release which is intended to be configured for the sensor and weapon fit of each submarine.[15]
This brings back memories of digging into systems that had no documentation, reverse engineering to discover how the data was structured, and how the systems used / accessed the data.
I was pretty good at that, but nothing like what these DOGE dudes are doing.
Why Government Computers Are Such a Mess
Oh man, don’t get me started!!! LOL
I know what you mean. I bet the DOGE boys don’t have to wade through HEX dumps.
Actually, I bet they do. Furthermore, as the article suggests, I bet a ton of the data is in EBCDIC.
Anything processed on either IBM 1400 or 360/370 is sure to be EBCDIC. They sometimes stored Hollerith images on mag tape.
I bet you had just as much fun, though.
I used to do federal and state computer work and was always shocked at how obsolete they were.
It’s not like on tv....
Think of the contracts that will come the way of these whiz kids if they’re successful in remaking some of the software disasters that are infamous in the community.
9-track
At my current employer, I was called in to rescue a project that was months behind as the Ada engineers struggled to write good code and fully document with 2167 processes. The customer was "done" and directed a change to C++. The Ada "engineers" were not C++ literate. It took a couple weeks to spin them up. By week three, we were delivering on contract requirements. Ada isn't dead, but it was just the wrong language for the problem to be solved.
I worked with a company, TSRI (The Software Revolution, Inc) that has very fine tools for taking legacy code in COBOL and modernizing it to present day standards. The project I did with them converted a dedicated Win32 UI running in Windows to an application that runs in a web browser. The translation was so good that you could run the Windows app and browser version side by side...and the browser version ran faster. Zero retraining cost for the user population. Deployment of updates became an update on the server only. Nothing touched on the user Windows client machines. Full re-use of the Windows client machines...just launch the browser and go.
Conversion of old code to modern standards isn't impossible. Even if you only have paper copies of the source code. Decent OCR gets it off the paper. A translation process similar to what TSRI offers can rapidly turn the old stuff into something useful. AI wasn't even a feature of the TSRI process when I worked with them in the past. I'll bet it is part of the process now.
Sheesh... not even VSAM?
-PJ
The UNISYS 1100-9X processors were 36 bits wide and supported a 6 bit code called Fieldata. Specialized UNISYS terminals used that natively. I believe the tape systems did as well.
My only exposure to government computers was back in the mid-1980’s.
The Congresscritter I had just gone to work for had bought their computer system from GSA and they had been given only three options...an IBM PC, an Apple Macintosh, or an Exxon computer.
Yes, at one point Exxon, the oil company, was in the personal computer business.
Guess which one the idiot bought?
My first task was to get the GSA to take the Exxon computer back and send us an IBM PC.
After we got PCs in the Washington and district office, I then suggested we use modems (!) to send our correspondence back and forth and set up THAT system and put together a rudimentary LAN to share those documents in each office.
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