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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,64929ef0e791a22d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-03-16 13:17:01 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!tilde.csc.ti.com!mksol!mccall From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) Subject: Re: Air Force helping to undermine Ada Message-ID: <1993Mar16.202640.5748@mksol.dseg.ti.com> Organization: Texas Instruments Inc References: <21040.732067706@blackbird> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 20:26:40 GMT Date: 1993-03-16T20:26:40+00:00 List-Id: 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.