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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,31c0457c1c47fc2 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-20 18:09:23 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: mjsilva697@earthlink.net (Mike Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Have you ever had a bug caused by... Date: 20 Oct 2001 18:09:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <27085883.0110201709.4b4047b2@posting.google.com> References: <27085883.0110191714.784d3d25@posting.google.com> <3BD1CA15.6492D999@linuxchip.demon.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.179.251.125 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1003626563 11046 127.0.0.1 (21 Oct 2001 01:09:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 21 Oct 2001 01:09:23 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:14981 Date: 2001-10-21T01:09:23+00:00 List-Id: Dr Adrian Wrigley wrote in message news:<3BD1CA15.6492D999@linuxchip.demon.co.uk>... > Mike Silva wrote: > > Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an array? > >... > > Have you ever had a bug caused by a variable getting set to a value > > outside its designed range? > > These are occasionally the *cause* of a bug. But more often they > are the *effect* of a bug. (Maybe it's just semantics, but I > think of some items on the list as the result of bugs, not the cause) > > In C, execution problems can arise due to a bug, and things collapse > much later, leading to much confusion and wasted time. > > In Ada, execution usually fails much earlier because of range checking, > leading the programmer to focus on the relevant part of the code. > This proximity of cause and effect is a big help debugging Ada. I agree that some of the list items are the result, not the cause, of a bug; but as you say, Ada will help by screaming bloody murder much more quickly. I was taking some liberties with the language -- maybe somebody can think of a more accurate but still snappy formulation. Mike