Re: Air Force helping to undermine Ada

[mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)]

In <21040.732067706@blackbird> munck@STARS.RESTON.PARAMAX.COM (Bob Munck) writes:

>I personally think we are heading for a slow crisis because of the
>mass of incomprehendable C that so many vendors are staking their
>business upon.  There will come a time when the pile is no longer
>maintainable, and the company will be in trouble.  Lotus went through
>a crisis like this a few years ago, and the telephone companies are
>going through it right now.  Proper use of Ada would help avoid this.

Proper use of *comments*, *documentation* and *configuration
management* would also help avoid this.  Ada is not some 'magic
bullet'.  Software is either properly engineered and maintainable or
it is not.  Language has no bearing on that.  Bad software can be
written in any language, as can good software.  The problem isn't some
lack of "proper use of Ada" (and note carefully the "proper"); it is a
lack of proper software engineering discipline, which can be exercised
or fail to be exercised in *any* language.

Some of us seem to have no problem reading and maintaining C, provided
that the implementer makes "proper use of C".

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.