Re: The actual quote from the Post AAS article

[berman@umbc.edu (Mike Berman)]

Hmmm...

The intent of making this a separate thread from the original posting on
the subject was to avoid a Ted Holden vs. the net flame exchange. Oh
well!

Straying from the topic of where Ted flies and what he drives...

If I remember my chronology correctly, the state-of-the-art in software
engineering awareness has matured along with its practice. When FORATRAN
was developed, it was considered by many to be a high level
_specification language_ which, relative to the machine and assembly
code programming of the day, it was. By today's standards of reuse and
portability, FORTRAN programs from two or three decades ago are
considered rather low level programming (low level meaning
application/machine dependent, not any kind of quality statement).

During the '70's, Ada was developed to address the software crisis in
very specific terms - the question was "Is it possible to design a
language which incorporates software engineering features?" (well, one
question - standardization on a single DoD programming language was a
biggie, too).

The answer is yes - Ada and many modern languages are living proof of
that.

Is is the _entire_ answer? No. The "component-based software society"
with its "software ICs" didn't occur in 1983 and is still barely present
today. Ada does not solve the software crisis - but its precepts are
most certainly a part of that solution.

Look at any of the software reuse guidelines developed over the last few
years. Language is identified as one relatively small part of the
problem. Cultural changes, process, all that Watts Humphrey stuff -
those are other key ingredients.

The development of OO paradigms has taken a parallel tack. OOPLs like
Smalltalk were up first. For large developments going straight to coding
isn't wise, hence the need for OOD. But OOD doesn't map well from
functional requirements, therefore OOA is needed.

The point of this Sunday A.M. rambling is (1) it beats shovelling snow,
and (2) nobody up front said "Hey, wouldn't it make things easier if we
wrote object-oriented requirements?" Similarly, while Ada may have been
envisioned as a "solution" to the software crisis in 1974, we're a lot
smarter about software engineering needs in 1993.

-- 
Mike Berman
University of Maryland, Baltimore County	Fastrak Training, Inc.
berman@umbc.edu					(301)924-0050