Re: Virus Resistive Software (talk about Ada Advocacy)

["James A. Krzyzanowski" <James_A_Krzyzanowski@raytheon.com>]

Is it possible that if Outlook never existed and Mozilla was the de facto
standard used by millions of people around the world that the creators of
viruses & worms would seek out the possible vulnerabilities that exist in
Mozilla but have not yet be exploited?

Is it possible that Outlook is simply analogous to "VHS" in the "VHS vs.
Beta Wars"?

Is it possible that developers with the best of intentions have allowed a
"bug" similar to the way Congress allows loopholes in the Tax Code?  Until
the loopholes are exploited, it is sometimes not obvious that they even
exist, but once they are found they are fixed if possible.

Oops...none of this really relates to Ada anymore - except that I see Ada
going the way of Beta in this country despite Ada proponents like myself
advising our upper management that Ada is the best language for large
software projects.  Somewhere along the line, our biggest customer has been
led to believe or desire the latest novelty languages out there despite
their lack of conformance to any universal standard.

Fast & cheap rules the day - damned be those who caution long term
reliability is more likely with up front cost and investment...remember the
old Fram Oil Filter commercials? - "pay me now or pay me later"

I used to own an Amiga...

...is it possible to be an "Ada proponent" yet be one who has succumbed to
the MicroSoft dark side?

Jeffrey Carter wrote:

> Robert C. Leif wrote:
>  > It appears from the latest news reports, that present commercial
>  > software, particularly email programs, is susceptible to attack by
>  > viruses. A question with a very big payoff is could software written
>  > in Ada and perhaps in part in XML be made significantly more virus
>  > resistant than present commercial software, such as Microsoft�
>  > Outlook�? For instance, would the strong type checking of both Ada
>  > and XML schema help.
>
> The problem is more the insistence on using software that is known to be
> vulnerable and faulty, such as Outlook, despite the availability of
> better software. For example, I use Mozilla, and have had no problems
> with the current crop of viruses and worms. Outlook is probably the most
> vulnerable mail program out there; at least when I had to use it, by
> default it installed with most of its protections turned off, and most
> of its most vulnerable features turned on. Nevertheless, it is probably
> the most widely used mail program. No amount of decent engineering can
> solve this problem.
>
> --
> Jeff Carter
> "If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate."
> Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
> 56