From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 21 Jun 93 14:00:02 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland .reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!The-Star.honeywell.com!cs0.dasd.honeywell. com!burro.dasd.honeywell.com!perky.dasd. (Todd A Sorensen) Subject: Re: Ada & top-down design - was defending Greg Message-ID: <1993Jun21.070002.1@perky.dasd.honeywell.com> List-Id: In article <1vu0hn$e0r@europa.eng.gtefsd.com>, eric@capella.tsc.gtefsd.com (Eri c Peterson) writes: > > Maybe the real problem with Ada is its focus on top-down design, where > the C developers have typically preferred build-a-little test-a-little. Even though I have been designing in Ada the past three years, I still use the iterative approach (learned in my Fortran V days). This approach works equally well in designing any software system, but is certainly not limited to any programming language. Any program that designs and designs without continually checking its design with an iterative approach is heading for trouble (yes this does happen in the non-mandated world!). > The waste I see every day is top-down designers in long meetings > producing designs which are worthless in the long run due to > inadequate, incomplete, and impossible requirements. The good engineers here try to promote good design as well as an iterative approach. We have 100 thousand lines of Ada code that have to come together by the end of the year. We are on our third major software build, with several minor builds inbetween. We are doing design/code/debug all at the same time. Each piece of the software within the system is at a different level of maturity, and there is no way that we could possibly wait for all the software to be designed before implementing any part of it. BTW, all this software had to be developed in 18 to 20 months - a real challenge for any project. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Todd A Sorensen Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems Division 505-828-5611 internet: tsorense@dasd.honeywell.com internet: tas@dasd.honeywell.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------