Re: Any research putting c above ada?

["Larry J. Elmore" <ljelmore@montana.campus.mci.net>]

Terry Colligan <terryc@tenberry.com> wrote in article
<33636746.328095140@client.ne.news.psi.net>...
> Steve Jones - JON <jon@hpodid2.eurocontrol.fr> wrote:
> 
> >haggedk1@ulysses.jhuapl.edu (CubanPete) writes:
> >
> >[snip]
> >> Come on now Phil.  There is no language that produces software that
> >> works "more right" than another.  Software is either right or it is
> >> not.   Ada may have a great debugger but VMS types will argue all day

The fact is that most Ada implementations don't need (or have) "great"
debuggers because a _lot_ less debugging is needed compared to C/C++. The
bugs are hardly ever as obscure and difficult to find as with C/C++.

> >On my last project we use C and Ada, the bug count in the Ada code was
> >over 1/3 that of the C code. And tracking down bugs in Ada is much
easier,
> >the code falls over it tells you the brief reason (eg constraint error)
and
> >the line at which the error was raised and the stack trace.  You can
then add
> >exception handlers et al to secure the system. It provides in built
range
> >checking and strong typing.
> >
> >In C assigning to an unitialised pointer will cause either a crash or
> >wild behaviour and never tell you, in Ada it will crash and tell you
why.
> 
>   A checking C environment will stop and tell you, as well.  Just
>   because most C environments don't do much checking doesn't mean it
>   can't be done.  Any assignment using an uninitialized pointer in our
>   InstantC incremental environment will tell you nicely that you have
>   just tried to use an uninitialized pointer.

Sure, it can be done. Just flip through any programming magazine like DDJ
or something similar and just _count_ how many (expensive) tools and
packages there are to catch all kinds of _extremely common_ C/C++ bugs.
It's better to use a language that helps one avoid the bugs in the first
place...

>   I am not offering any data or opinion about Ada vs C, since I don't
>   use Ada -- I'm just saying C can be made pretty safe, if you choose
>   to.

With how many hundreds of dollars of add-on tools?
Assembly language can be just as safe with a suitably highly-skilled,
highly-disciplined programmer. The point is that it is easier for the
average, run-of-the-mill programmer to write higher-quality code with Ada
than with C. Code that works right the first time.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------
Larry J. Elmore
Bozeman, Montana

"And they shall beat their swords into plowshares."
--Isaiah 2:4

"History teaches us that those who beat their swords into plowshares
usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords."
--Anon.