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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1014db,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Ken Garlington Subject: Re: Ada is 'better' than C because... Date: 1996/08/06 Message-ID: <320729F1.1ADC@lmtas.lmco.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 172495038 references: <01bb7bf9$b89a1740$96ee6fcf@timhome2> <4tj43k$16r@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <3205F296.41C6@wgs.estec.esa.nl> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c x-mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Macintosh; I; 68K) Date: 1996-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Sandy McPherson wrote: > > To get an objective view of whether one language is better than the > other, one has to evaluate statistics on error densities in comparable > systems written in the protagonist languages. Most people who have done > this come to this conclusion: the choice of programming language only > counts if the choice is between assembler and something else; and for > most mainstream higher languages the process of software development is > the determining factor. Try starting with a paper by Les Hutton, "Static > inspection - must have or might have?", published in IEEE software 1995, > which gives references to other interesting reading. For a counter-example, see this study (which did evaluate error densities): http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/AdaIC/docs/reports/cada/cada_art.html >From the summary: "The choice of programming language is only one of many factors in project successes and failures. In our opinion, it is NOT the most important.... The language choice may only change expenses by a factor of two. Of course, a million dollars here and a million dollars there and pretty soon you're talking about real money." So, although other factors such as software process may have a greater impact, at least this study indicates that choice of programming language is a significant issue. In this study, the same project done in C and Ada had significantly lower error densities in the C version. > > Sandy McPherson -- LMTAS - "Our Brand Means Quality"