From: Rex Reges <Dogbert.EggsAndSpamWithoutTheSpam@reges.org>
Subject: Re: Joint Strike Fighter
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 21:19:57 GMT
Date: 2001-11-06T21:19:57+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <3BE853FD.513040F@reges.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: Bv+BZfSYEFap@eisner.encompasserve.org
Larry Kilgallen wrote:
>
> In article <3BE813E4.C4797DDE@reges.org>, Rex Reges <Rex.R.Reges@boeing.com> writes:
>
> > I doubt that one could get several hundred Ada programmers
> > in a pinch. I couldn't hire six experienced Ada
> > contractors in six months! And try to get them to move
> > to some tornado infested place like Oklahoma City (who knows
> > what Fort Worth holds). Of course we could train C++
> > programmers. So we pay $75/hour for their time and send them
> > to training too!
>
> Is that the same price at which you could not hire Ada folk ?
>
> (For purposes of this discussion the exact amount does not matter,
> just the relationship.)
Once you realize the best approach to cost-plus contracts
is to honestly work as ineptly as possible, then you would
hire the cheapest folks you can find that the Government
will accept. So it appears I was wrong, the optimal solution
is to hire C/C++ programmers and make them code in Ada with
no training at all.
Upon this conclusion, I can now make sense of the Ada coding
practices I've seen:
- Calling memmov instead of using unchecked_conversion.
- Using 'Address to overlay variables (on the stack!).
- Assigning all of the components of a record one at
a time instead of using an aggregate assignment.
- Using a preprocessor to add 15 variatons of the code
(with overlapping conditions).
- Making every subprogram a function.
...
The hope is that Ada can still provide safety when
coded in a C-like fasion. However, invariably, some wiz says
that the run-time checks in Ada are too time consuming
and they turn them off; exceptions and exception handlers
are banned and type checking is assigned the role of
matching engineering units (feet versus meters).
Even trained Ada programmers have a hard time mapping
Object Oriented concepts to Ada since all of the OO
classes are taught in C++ (or no language as Rational
prefers it). So you see aggregation being accomplished
via child packages. How reusable is a component that
is the 6th child of the 12th generation of the system
object? And instead of using variant records it is
easier to create a single class that every message in
the system is derived from; imagine how many thousands
of variations are required for variable length
messages. But it easy to guess what the input or output
of any component is, it is a "message.object" (to be
defined at run-time). How are design patterns automatically
applied to Ada objects?
Maybe Ada was/is too much too soon, the world is not quite
ready yet?
Rex Reges
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2001-11-06 21:19 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 56+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2001-10-29 4:55 Joint Strike Fighter Richard Riehle
2001-10-29 11:11 ` Ian
2001-10-31 6:38 ` Richard Riehle
2001-10-31 13:38 ` David Botton
2001-10-31 16:15 ` Wes Groleau
2001-10-31 16:25 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-01 4:44 ` JF Harrison
2001-11-01 14:41 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-03 16:58 ` Richard Riehle
2001-11-03 18:52 ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-11-05 15:30 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-06 2:07 ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-11-06 16:46 ` Rex Reges
2001-11-06 18:17 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-06 19:07 ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-11-06 21:19 ` Rex Reges [this message]
2001-11-06 23:01 ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-11-08 14:55 ` Rex Reges
[not found] ` <Wa+tfCvHgQXH@eisner.e <3BEA9CED.8C6BF839@reges.org>
2001-11-08 15:43 ` Ian Wild
2001-11-08 22:18 ` Rex Reges
2001-11-22 6:25 ` David Thompson
2001-11-08 16:23 ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-11-08 13:53 ` Marc A. Criley
2001-11-08 22:15 ` Rex Reges
2001-11-09 12:44 ` Marc A. Criley
2001-11-09 15:41 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-09 15:35 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-10 6:56 ` john flynn
2001-11-04 1:08 ` David Botton
2001-11-05 14:59 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-01 14:55 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-01 21:47 ` P Norby
2001-11-02 17:02 ` P Norby
[not found] ` <003301c163c0$289f8c60$45d82c41@vaio>
2001-11-02 19:54 ` JF Harrison
[not found] ` <002a01c163d8$25bb4440$2702a8c0@WorkGroup>
2001-11-02 20:40 ` JF Harrison
2001-11-01 11:38 ` Ian
2001-11-01 14:51 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-02 9:08 ` John McCabe
2001-11-02 16:16 ` Ian
2001-11-02 17:04 ` John McCabe
2001-11-29 16:48 ` Matthew Heaney
2001-11-29 17:12 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-30 12:49 ` Simon Wright
2001-11-30 14:46 ` Marin David Condic
2001-11-30 16:37 ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-11-30 15:03 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-30 16:26 ` Simon Wright
2001-11-30 16:39 ` Ted Dennison
2001-11-30 17:08 ` Pat Rogers
2001-11-30 22:53 ` Chad R. Meiners
2001-12-01 8:08 ` Simon Wright
2001-10-29 15:02 ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-29 17:55 ` Paul A Storm
2001-11-01 4:46 ` Richard Riehle
2001-11-02 20:03 ` Dirk Craeynest
2001-11-07 3:57 ` Vincent Marciante
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