LETTER TO MR. ROBERT STEELE(Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00890R000800040019-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 21, 2003
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: April 29, 1981
• Content Type: LETTER

~ODU 'L~ C'?"J~~ LI i~~
Aaaroved For Release 2003/05/27 :CIA-RDP84B00890 40
Robert Steele
~re~:exal ~l~arketing c~pera~tions
fang Corpc~rati?~r.
X554 'wiontgontery Avenue
~ethesc~a., 'iii} 2t}014
Your presentations were excellent and ~:uch appreciated.
It ~=as a lot to cover in a day, And the interest.~as ohvicusly
high on our part,
i~+~rsonaliy, the areas I would like to have heard ~r~re
ai~out were ycUx plans fora grapi~ics capability iii tl,e ~'
env'iron~ent and a rote specific approach towards reliubi:lity,
availability and maintainat~,ility--including soaae specific
nunbers. Given your strong r~arket positic~r~, there mast he
some ctar~petitivc tests that yt~u would like to "brag altaut ,
such as r~i~ht have been Conducted by the GF,A or one n#
the departen.ts of the Uofl.
As impact toward youx future i~roc3uc:t, let r}e slake sc~~e
+ersdnAl observations, rahic3~ ara ciefiritely not those of the
,er~e~. They are offered solely in the context of trying; to
he helpful, anal I believe a.re repetitive of our conversations
eluting the breaks. They are:.
R graphics capability would aprear to be a
very ir~portar_t feature in any standard i~F line that
x~e might hu:y zn the future--not necessgril}r or. ~.Il
the ter~=inals , but Qn R good prapc~rtioaa of then ,
This is not s. TV'-quality graphics, but rat'r:er a
'garden variety" type. '~taderately i;o~+ct resolution
is r~eetiecl ~?aOP'~C:ver, significantly better than whwt yyc~~~
see en a 'TRS- 90 ~tadel III screen, anti on a par witk~
~l}~ple's--about 5Qt? lines I think. if color were-
Offereu it need only be simple} like on s Crvmerco,
3SClt the lf~ sY~AdeS bit,
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The need is to support the use o# gra~:~hics i^
Our re~~arts. ~e proba.t~ly average a~iotst one gra~l~_ic
every other page, and a #`drxc~amenta2 aspect Cf o-ar
~`]~ole business of our pro;l~zct generation--xeports-.
is the ineorpc~ration of gxa~.~:~ics that support t'~e
text. si+"t'. i2C~e to see it in that C47I2t~xt, Scale it,
a.z~d allo~~ the rig~~t amount of space fox ft.
Your c~eclication to BASIC creates problems irs
our envirorrr:ezzt . Any syste~~ we buy is goir.~; to he
_.:: a rx s . _ _
packages. ~_~ are rt~t a first ti~re user of Lf~P~ "anu ~~ur_..,
people axe highly Sophisticated in the developz~c*:t
applic?ztsaz:s of syste~?s.
Taxiz~,~ a lo:zger tern prc~~pective, I have tre.~bta
t~tiz BASIC in that it i.s Sr. analyst's car amateur' s
language. It riex.es life very difficult in a Iar~_e
corpczrate et~vira*u+_er~t in that it does rot lend itself
"ell tc~ structured ~otE~., easily ~e~ipherahle cane , ~>r
readily maintainable s}Tste~s. Inevitably, t~"~ere ~~i~l
be ~ z3~eec~ tc~ convert applicatc-r~s packages written 3n
it Hazen mare ~r~vwerful x~achizgery is brought in,
Cai~verting ~`ax~g BASIC to a higher ar~ler lar~guagc ma-~
present so great a proLlej. that the applicatioAs
packag~:s x~oul~i simply have to he scrap~~eci .
If your ?'~? systems sui~gorted sore of t~~e st~:tzjdti~rsi
fICL's s it wc~u3d be much xt-crre useful. I realise tau are
about to anneunce C4~t3L, ~rhic~~ is a step in the rig!:t
direction. CC}BOL is vcxy labor intensive, however, anr~
we need i~i(3L's w}~ich prQVic~e ~,reater productivity for tt;e
professional. I z~entione~' ~QJ r s Ada tc~ you as or=e~ r~,e
are f?~l2owing in this context with same interest.
? :~eca~tse of the szshstar~tisl file sizes test ~~
deal with. i.n much of our wt~Tk, an ability to d.o athFr
~?~ra3+sar~ operations than "and?~ is of ,great v.~.lue. ~~
need to be able to search multiple w?orc~s in clos+~
ce~r~text, such as "Space fihuttle," and to c3o `"or'` any;
;'Hoot." Without these facilities, the ratio of ixrelevant
to relevant bits could. be e~naccej ta~~ly high fc~r ~~ar~~- cif
?~ur users, Tt.ese facilities are pxir~arfly relevant t~~
text search, of course. Your BASIC Farad" capability
meets r.:c~tit of the needs when the search is simply oar
the header clata>
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 Approved For Re'l~ase 2003/05/27 :CIA-RDP84B00890R$@0800040019-8
Alain, thank you for your interest in helping to ~f;et the
cy's ;~ee~s ~.nci in your effort zn putt#ng tt~geth~r teat
firx.
Very truly yours,
llistribution:
t?rigina - Addressee
~- DDA Subject
I - llDA Chron
1 - It3SA Subject
I - I~-ISA Chron
rrDAJI~ISA:I
(29 1~pril 1981)
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