Re: memory leakages with Ada?

["Pat Rogers" <progers@classwide.com>]

"Richard Riehle" <richard@adaworks.com> wrote in message
news:3C94EF0F.53049AA@adaworks.com...
> Pat Rogers wrote:
>
> > There is plenty of evidence that Ada is much more cost-effective than C for
the
> > application domain Ada was designed for.  Unfortunately I don't know of much
> > meaningful comparison data for Ada vs. C++.    I know what my "gut" tells
me,
> > but that isn't so useful in this context.
>
> Pat,
>
> I have had some recent correspondence with Don Reifer regarding Ada's
> economic viability with respect to other languages.    Don seems to feel
> that, while Ada may be a better language choice for weapon systems
> development, the economics are not currently in its favor.    He has an
> article in the current issue of Crosstalk where he does some comparisons
> based on data he has been collecting over a long time.
>
> Don quite correctly challenges us to collect and develop the numbers
> to support our claims about Ada's productivity and its relevance in
> the current language environment.     While some may be critical of
> Don for their own reasons, he is not an enemy of Ada.  Rather, he
> has a consulting practice built on software metrics, and his credibility
> as a consultant demands he be honest with the data he develops.
>
> I raise this issue because you and others have asserted the "evidence"
> for the cost-effectiveness of Ada from time to time.   If we do have
> such evidence, it is time to prepare a counter-argument to Reifer's
> Crosstalk article.  He actually invites us to do so in that article.
>
> So, where are the metrics?

The  "Programming Languages and Lifecycle Cost" study shows metric data strongly
in favor of Ada over C, and of course the "Zeigler Paper" does as well.

The same issue of Crosstalk has an article by Peter Amey entitled "Correctness
by Construction: Better Can Also Be Cheaper".  On page 25 in that article, he
quotes a study in which Ada only had 10 percent the residual errors on code
written in C. Besides showing that in practice it does indeed matter what
language one uses, it also shows the cost advantage of Ada over C for that
domain.

> Has anyone collected them in one place?

I wonder about the ARA site...

> Is anyone with a predilection for Statistics interested in taking on
> this kind of project?

That would not be me -- I'm just a poor developer.

> Oh, and I don't think a rant about Reifer is appropriate.  He is an
> honest man trying to do his best with the tools and information he
> has.  If we have other information, it is our responsibility to present
> it.  Let's see if we can deal with this issue with other than an ad
> hominen attack.

Although I am in Mark Twain's camp when it comes to statistics  ("Lies, damn
lies, and statistics!"), I'm a bit confused by this last paragraph.  I've known
Don since long before he was at AJPO; I don't  recall ever attacking him!

---
Patrick Rogers                       Consulting and Training in:
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