Re: Papers on the Ariane-5 crash and Design by Contract

[William Clodius <wclodius@lanl.gov>]

Bertrand Meyer wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> I understand this remark (partly on the basis of verbal comments
> heard at the time) as a criticism of Ada's specific exception
> handling, but it is possible to understand it
> as an indictment of exception handling in general.
><snip>

I took this remark as based on three points emphasized in the text, his
previous experiences in implementing compilers for languages which made
him distrust linguistic complexity in general, his and others experience
with PL/I, the best known previous exception handling system, and the
overall complexity of the Ada language, which caused him to distrust the
most obvious additions to its complexity.  However, Ada had removed the
most problematic aspects of PL/1 exception handling system, i.e.,
resumption semantics. Note that while his speech occurred after Ada's
definition was fixed by the DoD, it occurred before robust and efficient
implementations were available so that it was not based on direct
experience with the language, and at least some of his subsequent public
comments since that time have been favorable towards Ada.

-- 

William B. Clodius		Phone: (505)-665-9370
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