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=2.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3734d251d92e2b1e,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Alan Brain Subject: Experiment Proposal re Languages Date: 1996/10/24 Message-ID: <32702431.DE6@dynamite.com.au>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 191692183 content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: @Home mime-version: 1.0 reply-to: aebrain@dynamite.com.au newsgroups: comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win16; I) Date: 1996-10-24T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Re Language Wars. It's my contention that not all languages are created equal. That some have definite advantages over others, all other things being equal. For example, and to be non-contraversial, programming in binary is likely to be less productive than in C, in general. And a language specifically tailored to a problem domain is likely to be better than any general-purpose language. So I'd like to try an experiment. Basically, a central authority would make up a task with a reasonable number of FPs of complexity, and write the Requirements. The task can't be too big, as the programming would have to be done gratis - would 40 hours work be enough (implementation, that is)? Then, via Internet, solicit a large number of suckers - um - professional software engineers, to write a program suite which accomplished the task. As my wife's into model railways, something simple could be done here as regards a genuine honest-to-Ghod target test suite. My questions are: What would be useful metrics? ( SLOCs, Person-Hours, etc) What would be a reasonable upper bound to the size of the task? Remember, this will have to be done gratis, I can't pay a cent. What other variables should I measure? Experience, Environment, tools, compilers? How many victims would be required to be statistically valid, and/or plausible? I'd appreciate some feedback on others about this. Would it be worthwhile? What analysis would be useful? As I'm an Ada afficionado, I'd really like someone of the C pursuasion to join me in designing the requirements, to eliminate unconscious bias. Maybe even a braod spectrum of people. I figure that I might just get a reasonable response if I could challenge those who were barrackers for C, C++, Ada-83, Ada-95, Eiffel, PL-I or whatever to PROVE their contentions in an experiment. Comments, please? I've put this only on comp.lang.ada. Apart from comp.lang.c, compl.lang.eiffel, what other newsgroups should this be run on? ---------------------- <> <> How doth the little Crocodile | Alan & Carmel Brain| xxxxx Improve his shining tail? | Canberra Australia | xxxxxHxHxxxxxx _MMMMMMMMM_MMMMMMMMM ---------------------- o OO*O^^^^O*OO o oo oo oo oo By pulling Maerklin Wagons, in 1/220 Scale