C programmers and safety critical systems programming

C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[John Kern]

Just noticed an editorial in Embedded Systems Programming which takes C
programmers to task for ignoring better language choices.

"Is C Passing?" by Michael Barr.
http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020523S0040

Perhaps this is an opportunity for Ada enthusiasts to speak up in a
publication dominated by C.

Re: C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[Marin David Condic]

The comment he published from the "Ada Professional" was indeed rather
rudely stated. One would hope that any future comments sent to Mr. Barr
would be put on a more positive note and would be a little more respectful.
It sounds as if Mr. Barr is not at all unsympathetic towards Ada and might
persuade others to look at it more seriously. (Not likely if we treat him
badly! :-)

I didn't notice anywhere on the page a means of responding to his editorial.
It might be beneficial to draw his attention to some of the studies done
indicating that Ada does result in fewer errors and faster development. He
might write more about it.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"John Kern" <jkern3@NOSPAM.visteon.com> wrote in message
news:3D062BA8.5B7F2C26@NOSPAM.visteon.com...
> Just noticed an editorial in Embedded Systems Programming which takes C
> programmers to task for ignoring better language choices.
>
> "Is C Passing?" by Michael Barr.
> http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020523S0040
>
> Perhaps this is an opportunity for Ada enthusiasts to speak up in a
> publication dominated by C.

Re: C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[David Gillon]

Marin David Condic wrote: 
> The comment he published from the "Ada Professional" was indeed rather
> rudely stated. One would hope that any future comments sent to Mr. Barr
> would be put on a more positive note and would be a little more respectful.

Not to mention justifiable. I can't see how any professional, whatever
his religious persuasion <g>, can claim that version control, full
documentation, coding standards, independent testing and inspections
'encourage medicrity'.

-- 


David Gillon

Re: C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[Ted Dennison]

"Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> wrote in message news:<ae5ev2$jc7$1@nh.pace.co.uk>...
> I didn't notice anywhere on the page a means of responding to his editorial.
> It might be beneficial to draw his attention to some of the studies done
> indicating that Ada does result in fewer errors and faster development. He
> might write more about it.

One of the blue buttons on the top (far right) is labeled "feedback".
I used it to respond with a link to the rational study (which bascily
says the same thing his article says, but has numbers to back it up),
and to argue that his noticed decrease in % use of Ada among reader
survey respondents might not mean a whole lot.

He has already sent me a rather nice reply promising to look at the
study. He also pointed out that there has been a huge increase in the
embedded market as a whole over the last few years, so it is quite
possible that Ada use in embedded systems is increasing, yet its
market share is dropping. I thought that was a rather good point.


-- 
T.E.D. 
Home     -  mailto:dennison@telepath.com (Yahoo: Ted_Dennison)
Homepage -  (temporarily down)

Re: C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[Marin David Condic]

Thanks. I sent him a note on my experiences with measured improvements in
productivity and quality. Who knows? Maybe he will follow up on this subject
again?

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Ted Dennison" <dennison@telepath.com> wrote in message
news:4519e058.0206120659.2567dcee@posting.google.com...
>
> One of the blue buttons on the top (far right) is labeled "feedback".
> I used it to respond with a link to the rational study (which bascily
> says the same thing his article says, but has numbers to back it up),
> and to argue that his noticed decrease in % use of Ada among reader
> survey respondents might not mean a whole lot.
>
> He has already sent me a rather nice reply promising to look at the
> study. He also pointed out that there has been a huge increase in the
> embedded market as a whole over the last few years, so it is quite
> possible that Ada use in embedded systems is increasing, yet its
> market share is dropping. I thought that was a rather good point.
>

Re: C programmers and safety critical systems programming

[Ted Dennison]

John Kern <jkern3@NOSPAM.visteon.com> wrote in message news:<3D062BA8.5B7F2C26@NOSPAM.visteon.com>...
> Just noticed an editorial in Embedded Systems Programming which takes C
> programmers to task for ignoring better language choices.
> 
> "Is C Passing?" by Michael Barr.
> http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020523S0040
> 
> Perhaps this is an opportunity for Ada enthusiasts to speak up in a
> publication dominated by C.

Given the nasty tone of the response he quoted, please try to be
polite this time.

I wrote back with a pointer to the Rational study, which I think would
have given him some hard numbers and would have helped his article had
he known about it.