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 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a3ca574fc2007430 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 115aec,f41f1f25333fa601 X-Google-Attributes: gid115aec,public From: andy.ashworth@gecm.com (Andy Ashworth) Subject: Re: Ada and Automotive Industry Date: 1996/12/03 Message-ID: <32a442b1.2110383@news.geccs.gecm.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 202103476 references: <55ea3g$m1j@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <3280DA96.15FB@hso.link.com> <1996Nov6.210957.3070@ole.cdac.com> <5683sk$bsc@news.ccit.arizona.edu> organization: GEC-Marconi newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.realtime Date: 1996-12-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: FWIW my two-penn'orth on the issue of safety and languages. Safety is a property of a system, i.e. the combination of software, hardware, hydraulics, and other bits you can kick. I agree with Chris that the safety of a language is a moot point if the tool support is buggy - while the code source file may be inherently "safer" (i.e. perception of correctness is higher) for Ada or Modula 2 than for C or C++, when compiled with buggy tools the safety of the overall system is degraded. Having spent a number of years assessing real industrial safety critical systems, I have come to the conclusion that the language used is not an issue; rather, it is how it is used that can significantly affect the ultimate safety levels. How the language is used is one function of management and IMHO it is weak management that is the greatest threat to public safety where software is concerned and not the use of a language with weak semantics. I believe that ADA, Modula 2 and other so called safe languages can produce and unsafe result just as the unsafe languages like C can be used to produce a safe system. #define rant=off Andy Ashworth Senior Software Safety Engineer Opinions are mine and not GEC's - they don't pay me enough to make policy!