There ARE ATC guys in NATS who do understand software and could specify a usable system. Where are they? Our current CEO for one - a job he WAS good at. The GM LATCC-ER is another, a DWS and a few CSCs also feature on the list. Why aren't they doing the job? Well, historically Data Processing has been seen as a dead-end job for an ATCO; anybody who had any ambition baled out asap many years ago. Perhaps things will be different in the future, but I doubt it. There is a widespread attitude that non-operational ATCOs are, somehow, a lower form of life, and are only there because "they can't stand the heat in the kitchen". In some cases, perhaps, but there have been, and still are, numbers of qualified ATCOs who are doing their bit behind the scenes, trying to improve the quality of "progress" to benefit us all. Sadly, the cynicism that they frequently encounter tends to drive them back into mainstream ATC, if only to prove that they CAN do the job. Small wonder that the non-ATC software engineers always have the upper hand in specifying what we do and do not want.