From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,899fc98b2883af4a X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-16 20:20:31 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!enews.sgi.com!news.xtra.co.nz!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "AG" Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305091549.48b9c5d9@posting.google.com> <7507f79d.0305121629.5b8b7369@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305130543.60381450@posting.google.com> <254c16a.0305140549.3a87281b@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305141747.5680c577@posting.google.com> <3ec4b1c9$1@news.wineasy.se> <9fa75d42.0305161748.1735fc32@posting.google.com> Subject: Re: Quality systems (Was: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died)) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Message-ID: <3Uhxa.4427$3t6.50584@news.xtra.co.nz> Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 15:20:59 +1200 NNTP-Posting-Host: 219.88.61.14 X-Complaints-To: newsadmin@xtra.co.nz X-Trace: news.xtra.co.nz 1053141631 219.88.61.14 (Sat, 17 May 2003 15:20:31 NZST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 15:20:31 NZST Organization: Xtra Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63979 comp.object:63592 comp.lang.ada:37430 comp.software-eng:19252 Date: 2003-05-17T15:20:59+12:00 List-Id: "soft-eng" wrote in message news:9fa75d42.0305161748.1735fc32@posting.google.com... > C would catch that in a vanilla situation (assigning > an integer to a string pointer), Ah, a "pointer". That speaks volumes :-) On top of that, did you really mean integer to a [string] pointer or a pointer to a pointer? > so I > assume the situation was far from vanilla, in > which case it is possible for things like > that to happen in Ada. No, that was a plain vanilla case like: [not Ada of course] F(x in number) Y return string z := F(Y); Now, the critical problem is not the syntax (or lack thereof) but the meaning. Unfortunately, both the compile and the run-time systems thought they could outguess the programmer(s) who made that mistake. It wouldn't be at all bad if it guessed wrong but smelled fire and let someone do the checking - but hey, that would be strong typing, right? Instead, it just went ahead and did some conversions that it *thought* is ok to do. Which happened to be ok except in some special cases which programmers had no control over.