comp.lang.ada
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
  • * Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion)
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
           [not found]   ` <191@graffiti.UUCP>
    @ 1985-10-06 20:54   ` Eugene D. Brooks III
      1985-10-07 14:13   ` Karl Tombre
                         ` (4 subsequent siblings)
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: Eugene D. Brooks III @ 1985-10-06 20:54 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    Re: Use of subscript checking during program development.
    
    I guess I did not make myself clear concering this with all the anti-ADA
    bigotry confusing the real issue.
    
    Subscript checking, pointer checking (ie have a tag associated with a pointer
    returned by malloc and can be used to check for overrun of the allocated area)
    and all that are very useful during program development.  These are very useful
    tools and any serious programmer uses them during the development of a code.
    
    Since these things are program development tools, where speed is not an issue,
    they should be implemented in software and do not need the any hardware support.
    Hence the discussion does not belong in net.arch.
    
    All of this stuff about a subscript range check appearing on the console of an
    F16 fire control system to save the pilots rear in a dogfight is simply too
    absurd to comment about and I hope that more of it does not appear on net.arch.
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread
  • * Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion)
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
           [not found]   ` <191@graffiti.UUCP>
      1985-10-06 20:54   ` What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Eugene D. Brooks III
    @ 1985-10-07 14:13   ` Karl Tombre
      1985-10-11 12:59   ` J. Eric Roskos
                         ` (3 subsequent siblings)
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: Karl Tombre @ 1985-10-07 14:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    >>The only people who like it are those who can't
    >>manage to write correct programs and need a crutch like subscript checking even
    >>in a production version of a code.
    >>
    >>If you program has a proof of correctness, and it checks its input data
    >>properly, it does not need range checks on subscripts.  Such checking only
    >>slows the computer down.  I don't have spare cycles for such a wast of time.
    >>REAL programmers don't need subscript checking, they write lint free code
    >>automatically.  Please leave your ADA hype on net.ada where no one is bothering
    >>to read it!
    >
    >    Right -- soft errors (or hard ones for that matter) never happen once
    >    code reaches production.  Not to mention things like tasks over-
    >    writing other tasks data areas and things of that sort.  Admittedly,
    >    if these things happen you've got problems, but if I were the captain
    >    of a 747, I would rather have the autopilot tell me to take over because
    >    it detected a non-recoverable error and was shutting down, than
    >    to have it attempt a manuever that would fold the wings like tin foil. 
    >
    
    It it is dificult for me to understand that people can be so proud of their
    favorite language that they do not see its weaknesses and understand that in
    some applications another language would do much better. I myself program
    mostly in C, but I am convinced that some other kinds of applications than
    my own, ADA would be much better (and for others LISP and so on).
    Saying that REAL programmers don't need subscript checking because they
    write lint free code automatically seems a very arrogant position to me.
    Beware! Some day you might be bogged down in problem too complex to solve
    without help from range checking and such things. One main problem with C is
    its lack of abstraction, and in very large projects I would recommend ADA.
    
    No language is that good, nor that bad!
    -- 
    --- Karl Tombre @ CRIN (Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Nancy)
    UUCP:    ...!vmucnam!crin!tombre  or    ...!inria!crin!tombre
    COSAC:   crin/tombre
    POST:    Karl Tombre, CRIN, B.P. 239, 54506 VANDOEUVRE CEDEX, France
    
    "Car le plus lourd fardeau, c'est d'exister sans vivre."
                                      (Victor Hugo)
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread
  • * Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion)
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
                         ` (2 preceding siblings ...)
      1985-10-07 14:13   ` Karl Tombre
    @ 1985-10-11 12:59   ` J. Eric Roskos
      1985-10-13  6:28   ` Barry Margolin
                         ` (2 subsequent siblings)
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: J. Eric Roskos @ 1985-10-11 12:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    > Since these things are program development tools, where speed is not an
    > issue, they should be implemented in software and do not need the any
    > hardware support.  Hence the discussion does not belong in net.arch.
    
    I think our compiler-writers would probably disagree with you... certain
    types of checking (e.g., checking for addresses in a certain range, which
    I suggested back at the beginning of this discussion) is enormously
    difficult to do without hardware support... I have heard of debuggers that
    had to completely emulate the instruction set in order to do this.
    -- 
    Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
    UUCP: Ofc:  ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer
         Home:  ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jerpc!jer
      US Mail:  MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC;
    	    2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread
  • * Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion)
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
                         ` (3 preceding siblings ...)
      1985-10-11 12:59   ` J. Eric Roskos
    @ 1985-10-13  6:28   ` Barry Margolin
      1985-10-16  5:46   ` systolic processor? wildstar
      1985-10-21  2:26   ` Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Richard Welty
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: Barry Margolin @ 1985-10-13  6:28 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    In article <210@rtp47.UUCP> throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) writes:
    >...  So, my fuzzy answer to "What do you do in a finished
    >product in a high-risk environment when an unanticipated bug occurs?" is
    >"The best you can".
    
    Your posting made some good points, but I would like to elaborate on
    your simple summation.  In my opinion, and I suspect also those of the
    designers of fancy condition-handling mechanisms, the answer is "the
    best that the language and architecture permit."  Pascal, COBOL, and C,
    as far as I know, provide the programmer with very little capability to
    detect problems and deal with them; programs will just abort when some
    conditions occur, and there is nothing that can be done to automatically
    determine why, in order to decide what action to take.  In PL/I, Ada,
    some BASICs, and CLU there are relatively powerful condition mechanisms,
    which permit the program to recognize many abnormal states.  Yes, there
    will always be situations in which this will fail; for instance, the
    stack might be screwed up due to an assignment through a busted pointer.
    But it is best if "the best you can" translates to "detect most problems
    and deal with them appropriately."
    -- 
        Barry Margolin
        ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
        UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread
  • * Re: systolic processor?
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
                         ` (4 preceding siblings ...)
      1985-10-13  6:28   ` Barry Margolin
    @ 1985-10-16  5:46   ` wildstar
      1985-10-21  2:26   ` Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Richard Welty
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: wildstar @ 1985-10-16  5:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    
         I had an idea about creating a systolic machine, but it might not seem to
    follow any orthodox rules.  I would like to build a PROLOG machine capable of
    spawning off processes in parallel instead of performing backtracking.
    
    The way I thought of doing it is as follows:
    
    1) For each cell, let the cell have a 32 bit mpu with a large amount of local
    memory (1M dynamic) and just enough ROM on board to recognize a PROLOG kernal.
    
    2) The interconnection medium would be a one dimensional microwave waveguide
    having an overall bandwidth of, say 100 Ghz to use a nice round number. This
    medium would be divided into channels of 1 Mhz , for a total of 100,000
    channels.
    
    3) Each cell would have 2 adjustable listening center frequencies and 1
    adjustable transmitting center frequency.  The adjustments would be controlled
    by each cell under it's own individual software control.
    
    4) Cells would communicate with each other under a distributed contention
    protocol. Ideally, groups of cells would be clustered together under mutual
    communication in a process, such that the contention protocol would do
    the equivalent of segmentation.
    
    Does this sound like it makes any sense?
    
    Andrew Fine
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread
  • * Re: Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion)
           [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
                         ` (5 preceding siblings ...)
      1985-10-16  5:46   ` systolic processor? wildstar
    @ 1985-10-21  2:26   ` Richard Welty
      6 siblings, 0 replies; 21+ messages in thread
    From: Richard Welty @ 1985-10-21  2:26 UTC (permalink / raw)
    
    
    brooks@lll-crg.UUCP (Eugene D. Brooks III) writes:
    >The only people who like it are those who can't manage to write correct
    >programs and need a crutch like subscript checking even in a production
    >version of a code.
     
    >REAL programmers don't need subscript checking, they write lint free code
    >automatically.  Please leave your ADA hype on net.ada where no one is
    >bothering to read it!
    
    *flame on*
    
    I am not a big fan of ADA, but the preceeding is a load of garbage.
    
    rule 1:  Large systems have bugs
    
    rule 2:  the more checking the language system does for you, either
             at run time or at compile time, the better off you are
    
    rule 3:  the earlier that the system catches a bug (compile time is
             best), the better ...
    
    Correctness proofs are a nice idea, and worthy of many research
    dollars, but are far from being able to deal with the problems
    that developers of large systems have today.
    
    While I consider C to be more generally useful than Pascal
    (and Ada, at the current time), there things about Pascal that
    I miss a great deal ... and every time I find a bug in my C code
    that Pascal would have flaged at compile time, I miss Pascal more
    (and as a VMS C programmer, I don't have access to lint -- I wish
    I did).
    -- 
    				Rich Welty
    
    	(I am both a part-time grad student at RPI and a full-time
    	 employee of a local CAE firm, and opinions expressed herein
    	 have nothing to do with anything at all)
    
    	CSNet:   weltyrp@rpi
    	ArpaNet: weltyrp.rpi@csnet-relay
    	UUCP:  seismo!rpics!weltyrp
    
    ^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread

  • end of thread, other threads:[~1985-10-21  2:26 UTC | newest]
    
    Thread overview: 21+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
    -- links below jump to the message on this page --
         [not found] <796@kuling.UUCP>
         [not found] ` <2580002@csd2.UUCP>
         [not found]   ` <191@graffiti.UUCP>
         [not found]     ` <568@unisoft.UUCP>
    1985-09-29 18:21       ` What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Jan Steinman
    1985-10-02  1:16         ` Eugene D. Brooks III
    1985-10-03 20:14           ` William D Michael
    1985-10-05 19:23             ` DARIN JOHNSON
    1985-10-04 13:04           ` Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, r rosen
    1985-10-04 13:44           ` What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Jon Mauney
    1985-10-05 15:17           ` Swamp Thing
    1985-10-05 21:30           ` S.Rajeev
    1985-10-06  6:04           ` Jan Steinman
    1985-10-07 20:56           ` J. Eric Roskos
    1985-10-02 16:04         ` Peter da Silva
    1985-10-07 21:04           ` J. Eric Roskos
    1985-10-09 18:56           ` Wayne Throop
    1985-10-09 23:47           ` Peter Ludemann
    1985-09-30 20:00       ` Subscript out-of-bounds detection Joe Orost
    1985-10-06 20:54   ` What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Eugene D. Brooks III
    1985-10-07 14:13   ` Karl Tombre
    1985-10-11 12:59   ` J. Eric Roskos
    1985-10-13  6:28   ` Barry Margolin
    1985-10-16  5:46   ` systolic processor? wildstar
    1985-10-21  2:26   ` Re: What I miss... (really C, Ada, religion) Richard Welty
    

    This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
    for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox