From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bca59cb4fdc73b85,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-03-13 07:47:20 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: sparky!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!source.asset.com!tannend From: tannend@source.asset.com (David M. Tannen) Subject: Blaming Ada Message-ID: <1993Mar13.144444.41403@source.asset.com> Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1993 14:44:44 GMT Organization: Asset Source for Software Engineering Technology Followup-To: tannend@source.asset.com Date: 1993-03-13T14:44:44+00:00 List-Id: In article emery@dr_no.mitre.org (David Emery) writes: > like to make here.> > >One of the interesting things we've noticed over the last few years as >our contractors started using Ada is that it's easier to spot >disasters. It used to be that we wouldn't discover that a program was >totally screwed up until close to delivery. Now, we can tell pretty >early into the program when it won't make it. We still don't know >what to do about it, but at least the problems become visible earlier. > >In many respects, Ada is to "blame" for this, because Ada makes it >easier to see the design, or lack of design, in the software. This >isn't just a feature of Ada, but Ada helps significantly. This is absolutely true. I am now witnessing a project going through integration nightmares all because there was no design. Exactly one year ago someone on this project showed a piece of their code - a 20 page spec. Yes you read that right - 20 pages of Ada specification. When I pointed out that this is not how things should be done in Ada or software engineering or structured programming - I was informed that this code was written by one of the departments best programmers. I continued to point out that no senior engineer was watching the design (I was on a related project with a bit of free time). Then I got busy with my own project. Now I am in the middle of this nightmare. We have been integrating this system for 5 months with no end in sight. Oh the project is about 9kSLOC if anyone is interested. > >The morale of the story is that bad programmers can screw up using any >language. Ada just makes this more visible. I agree with you Dave. How do we make things better? My forehead hurts from beating it against my management brick wall. > > dave David Tannen tannend@source.asset.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- "Dependence on wizardry to mitigate the fundamental limitations of -- software is called 'hacking'." Grady Booch -------------------------------------------------------------------------