Death by analogy Part 2 (was Re: is ada dead?)

["Michael P. Card" <michael.p.card@lmco.com>]

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Hello CLA-

I considered the implied cost/benefit analogy for Ada here to be incorrect, and I addressed that in "Part 1".

As a separate topic, I would also say that RE: development tools for C/C++, the old adage "you get what you pay for" is still true. I have been on
jobs which used the freebie "gcc" tools that come from the RTOS vendor, and I have compared the kind of multi-threaded debugging/etc support that
you get with these tools to those available from third party compiler vendors.

I have heard people make arguments similar to this wire-cutter analogy, e.g. "Yeah, but we get a C/C++ compiler FOR FREE with the operating
system; these other tools cost thousands of dollars per seat! We can't afford that! How much difference could there be?"

It is unfortunate that these kinds of decisions are made at the beginning of a project before their full impact can be known. Only later do
problems like excessive memory usage, poor debugging support, erroneous or inefficient code generation, lack of exception handling etc. become
apparent, and by then it's too late to switch. Money gets wasted in lost productivity every day, and in the end you end up spending far more than
you would have to buy a better tool at the outset.

So, I would say again that even beyond Ada vs. C/C++/Java/C#/fad du jour arguments, there is a "cheap toolset vs. expensive toolset" argument
which is similar in that the "best" answer depends on what kind of job you are doing.

- Mike

Al Christians wrote:

> Jerry Petrey wrote:
> >
> > This is certainly not nonsense.  But don't feel bad.  Many people in
> > the industry are unable to understand the true cost of developing
> > software and only look at the up-front coding costs, tool costs, etc.  > That is one of the main reasons most software is over budget and of
> > poor quality or not even ever delivered.
> >
>
> Suppose you are an electrician and you hear about a new kind of
> wirecutter.  There are studies that say this wirecutter improves
> average productivity by 2%.  If you do the math, you can figure that
> this is worth $2,000 to you over the expected 5 year life of the
> wirecutters.  You go to the store and see $1,295 wirecutter on sale
> next to all the others at $11.  Which pair do you buy?  Which toolmaker
> has biggest market share and good cash flow to finance ways to improve
> their product?
>
> For $1,284 most can think up a reason why they are not average.
>
> Al

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