Your article ``Accelerating Engineering Design'' (July), which discussed a Formtek implementation at Lockheed, left out the salient point that Formtek is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed. The article is misleading in that it never mentions that Lockheed, in effect, awarded the contract to an in-house vendor.
David Hurwitz
San Jose, CA
You are correct when you state that Formtek is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed. My research confirmed the special relationship between the two companies but revealed that procedures for such internal procurements are more stringent than for arms-length transactions. But given that the effect of the Formtek-Lockheed relationship was to complicate--rather than simplify--the contract award to Formtek, in hindsight, I agree. This relationship should have been made clear.--S. Wallace
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
BYTE Digest editors every month analyze and evaluate the best articles from Information Week, EE Times, Dr. Dobb's Journal, Network Computing, Sys Admin,
and dozens of other CMP publications—bringing
you critical news and information about wireless communication,
computer security, software development, embedded systems,
and more!
No Favoritism Here
