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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e1a91c4d90acda97 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,e1a91c4d90acda97 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-18 06:57:17 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.gv.tsc.tdk.com!falcon.america.net!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Marin David Condic Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: Safety-Critical Systems Developed Using C++ Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 09:54:01 -0500 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Message-ID: <3A670389.D4D0FB10@acm.org> References: <945eeq$vmk$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <3A664EC4.6F679BE0@acm.org> <6Hu96.4848$rw.42689@e420r-atl2.usenetserver.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: d1.56.b8.d5 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 18 Jan 2001 14:55:49 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.07 [en] (WinNT; I) Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4156 comp.lang.c++:40303 Date: 2001-01-18T14:55:49+00:00 List-Id: John Luebs wrote: > Ada reduces error rates! So that's why the DoD abandoned it as fast as > possible! > Isn't "Military Intelligence" supposed to be a contradiction? Nobody ever said the DoD did everything that makes sense. :-) There are more issues to language selection than merely error rates. Some of them rational and logical. Some of them perceptional and emotional. I was disputing the notion that with respect to error rates, language choice has no impact. In a former incarnation, I was in charge of collecting and distilling project metrics. I had TEN YEARS of data on software productivity and error rates. Switching to Ada just about doubled productivity and reduced error rates by a factor of four. You can like any language you want and you can use any language you want for whatever reasons you want. Still, I had hard data that showed that Ada made life better on at least two important measurements. There are similar studies out there with similar results. Those who argue that "any competent programmer" should be able to write reliable code in any language are missing the point. In the Kingdom of God, there won't be any software errors. As long as we are writing code in this world, we have to deal with human errors and occasional incompetence. The language you use can be demonstrated to have a big impact on errors getting to the field. If you're curious, look up John W. McCormick in the Computer Science Department at the University of Northern Iowa. He had what is as close to a controlled experiment in productivity/errors within software development as you can get. It involved real time programming of model railroads - one set of experiments in C and another in Ada. There was a dramatic difference between the two. Ada won out big time in this area. MDC -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - http://www.quadruscorp.com/ Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ q u a d r u s c o r p . c o m Visit my web site at: http://www.mcondic.com/ "I'd trade it all for just a little more" -- Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10] ======================================================================