Re: Boeing and Dreamliner

[Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com>]

Hyman Rosen wrote:

> rleif wrote:
> > All the Boeing management need to do is read the JAVA and C# literature on
> > why these languages were created. Choosing an inferior technology is bad;
> > choosing and inferior, obsolete technology is worse.
> >
> > I might note that there are enough potential expert witnesses in this group
> > to cause Boeing grave financial damage in the event management is negligent
> > in the choice of programming language and this negligence leads to deaths or
> > injuries.
>
> Ada made the Ariane 5 crash!

Untrue.  Engineering mismanagement made Ariane 5 crash.

The Ada code that caused a problem in Ariane 5 was perfectly
good code reused from Ariane 4.   It worked exactly as intended
on Ariane 4.    The launch characteristics of Ariane 5 were different
from Ariane 4, and this difference was overlooked by the engineering
team.

To use an analogy, this is much like prescribing a medicine for a patient
that works exactly as intended on most patients.  However, some patients
will be allergic to that same medicine.   The physician has a responsibility
to do a careful medical analysis to ensure there are no contra-indicated
circumstances in the health history or the targeted patient.  The engineer
must determine whether there are differences between the targeted
platforms for existing, albeit otherwise correct, software components.

Richard Riehle