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: 103376,63ceef1cf4561e32 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Gary Scott Subject: Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope? Date: 2000/07/25 Message-ID: <397E0721.DB9F69D9@lmtas.lmco.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 650713426 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <8l01s4$gnr$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com> <8lklel$3c$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: LMTAS Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-07-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Hi, I hope that you will post/summarize your conclusions here in some detail (as someone with an interest in discouraging the stampede towards C++ in my company, I would like to distribute them more widely, if possible). Thanks mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote: > > In article <397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com>, > Richard Riehle wrote: > > > > > > mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote: > > > > > We're bidding on a custom industrial controller, and I've proposed > to > > > write the firmware in Ada. The powers-that-be here are satisfied > with > > > that, but the customer is afraid nobody will be around to maintain > it. > > > They're happier with C or C++, alas. Anybody have any good answers > to > > > their concern? > > > > > > > This situation is so common that we should have some kind of canned > > response. However, > > there are a lot of people out there who will never be persuaded about > the > > virtues of Ada over > > C and C++ regardless of what facts are presented. A bunch of > misinformed > > software developers > > at a mid-west USAF base comes to mind. > > > > Someone once said, "He convinced against his will is of the same > opinion > > still." Your customer > > will continue to be wary of Ada simply because of the widespread > mythology > > about it. > > > > A few things can be said that might make sense. An Ada program, > > well-written will probably be > > more readable ten years from now than any program in C or C++ by a > > programmer who has never > > seen any of the above mentioned languages. The Ada compiler you > used for > > the project will > > still be around somewhere. If someone understands the nature of > firmware, > > that same someone > > will have no difficulty understanding your Ada code unless you make > it so > > cryptic that it reads like > > C or C++ just to be mischievous. > > > > That being said, I doubt you will have any success persuading the > customer > > that Ada is a better > > choice. Such people make up their minds, like the previously > mentioned > > software developers, and > > simply close their minds to anything different from what they have > already > > decided. You could write > > the code in both languages and let them see the difference. Doubt > that > > will help, but it might be worth > > a try. > > I don't sense they have an active animus towards Ada, but only a > concern about maintenance. I've prepared a response that tries to > point out the technical benefits of Ada and the relative unsuitability > of C/C++ for high reliability software (I found quite a few quotes from > DoD and NASA documents that help). I've also tried to emphasize that a > decent embedded programmer should pick up maintenance Ada quickly and > that, OTOH, most of the vast pool of C/C++ programmers are not > necessarily qualified to do embedded programming. > > Anyway, I'll give it my best shot. The more I step back from C/C++ the > more unsuitable it seems to me for creating reliable software (and the > more important reliability becomes in my priorities). > > Mike > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > Before you buy.