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: fac41,f66d11aeda114c52 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,f66d11aeda114c52 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Bertrand Meyer Subject: Re: Critique of Ariane 5 paper (finally!) Date: 1997/08/13 Message-ID: <33F24160.446B9B3D@eiffel.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 264035548 References: <33E503B3.3278@flash.net> <33E8FC54.41C67EA6@eiffel.com> <33E9B217.39DA@flash.net> <33EA5592.5855@flash.net> <33EB4935.167EB0E7@eiffel.com> <33EB754E.446B9B3D@eiffel.com> <33EBE46D.2149@flash.net> <33EF9487.41C67EA6@eiffel.com> <33F20BCE.AB3@link.com> <33F22AD8.41C67EA6@eiffel.com> Organization: Interactive Software Engineering Inc. Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1997-08-13T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Samuel Mize wrote: > > But to make the jump from sufficient to necessary is completely > > without basis, and can only be regarded as advertising puffery. > > Which appeared in a column in IEEE Computer magazine, positioning > it deceptively as a technical item instead of an ad. This is outrageous. The article in question suggested a technical principle (Design by Contract) to avoid new occurrences of a documented major disaster. It did not mention any software product. IEEE Computer and other magazines publish thousand of pages suggesting technical solutions to problems -- often, in fact, advocating products and companies. Is any argument for CORBA, or OLE, or UML, or Unix, or Windows to be dismissed as as "deceptive", an "ad" and not a "technical item"? For example the June issue of IEEE Computer included a 6-page eulogy of Java by its creator, James Gosling. Is this a deceptive ad too? After all, unlike the Ariane paper, it does talk throughout about its author's company (Sun) and products (Solaris etc.) But if we barred technical advocacy, IEEE Computer and other magazines would soon become rather boring places. Fortunately I don't think that's going to happen. The underlying issue is what we do to improve software reliability, and that's not going to be resolved by gratuitous attacks. -- Bertrand Meyer, President, ISE Inc. ISE Building, 2nd floor, 270 Storke Road, Goleta CA 93117 805-685-1006, fax 805-685-6869, http://www.eiffel.com, with instructions for free download