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From: john@nospam.demon.co.uk (John McCabe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ariane5 FAQ
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:03:37 +0000 (UTC)
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On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 21:57:40 -0700, Richard Riehle
<richard@adaworks.com> wrote:

>> >We have to assume that the Ariane 5 folks were not
>> >complete blithering idiots,
>
>Bertrand Meyer published a controversial article suggesting
>that, had they used design by contract ( a la Eiffel) this could
>not have happened.  While I don't agree that Eiffel would have
>been better for the job, a contract model such as that found in
>SPARK might have been successful in detecting the design
>error early on.

I doubt it.

>It is not the blithering idiots who make the kind of mistake
>that  triggered the Ariane V event.   Rather, it is usually a
>series of decisions, not well-managed or coordinated, by
>competent engineers.

Not even competent engineers. This descision was, according to the
report, "agreed at all levels". This includes managers who were
probably more interested in saving a few francs by not having to
re-develop the SRI than any technical reasons.

>In the end, the Ariane V event was a failure of engineering
>management, not of  individual engineers.  No amount of
>DbC, more careful design, better languages,  whatever, can
>compensate for incompetent engineering management.

Agreed.


Best Regards
John McCabe

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