Re: Have you ever had a bug caused by...

[mjsilva697@earthlink.net (Mike Silva)]

http://www.lucent.com/minds/techjournal/apr-jun1998/pdf/paper01.pdf

"Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> wrote in message news:<9r1bkl$4po$1@nh.pace.co.uk>...
> 
> I wish I still had the link to a study done by Lucent concerning C errors in
> one of their big switches. The bulk of the most common errors were things
> that couldn't happen in Ada. Their answer? Publish coding standards and
> audit the code by hand. Let's see..... My fully burdened labor cost is how
> many dollars an hour? And a compiler can do the checking at how many dollars
> an hour? And if I field a product with errors in it, that could cost me how
> many dollars in warranty costs and lawsuits? Hmmmmmmmm...... Why is it I'm
> insisting on using C again??? :-)
> 
> MDC
> --
> Marin David Condic
> Senior Software Engineer
> Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
> Enabling the digital revolution
> e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
> Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/
> 
> "Mike Silva" <mjsilva697@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:27085883.0110191714.784d3d25@posting.google.com...
> > While discussing (er, pushing) Ada with some C-coding co-workers today
> > I asked a question to which I knew the answer (always the best kind!):
> >  "Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an
> > array?"  Well, of course, they all had to say yes.  Then I started
> > thinking of other bugs that they would have to admit to, and which
> > wouldn't occur in Ada.  Nothing new here (Ada prevents many bugs...),
> > but I thought it would be fun and useful to develop a group list as an
> > Ada advocacy tool.  For example:
> >
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an array?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by an implicit type conversion?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by a variable getting set to a value
> > outside its designed range?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by different type sizes on different
> > platforms?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by mixing incompatible types?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters of incorrect
> > types?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters in an incorrect
> > order?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by different data structure ordering on
> > different platforms?
> >
> >
> > And so on.  It might also be nice to have a section of "Have you ever
> > wished you could..." questions.
> >
> > Anyway, such a list strikes me as a potentially useful piece of
> > advocacy, should anybody want to offer contributions.
> >
> > Mike