Re: 7E7 Flight Controls Electronics

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

They're doing this stuff to DO-178b and for high criticality items, this 
calls out for rather severe levels of structural testing. Basically it 
means you need to cover all the paths in the software (more complex than 
this really, but this is the short version) Even with C++, this level of 
test coverage ought to insure safety of flight. Its just that it will 
likely cost more and take longer.

Of course if you've allowed for it in the schedule, you won't slip the 
schedule. That depends on your experience with development of similar 
systems. If Ada has a demonstrable edge in this area (cost and schedule) 
then a competitor ought to be able to bid the job lower, wouldn't you think?

So where are the Ada shops willing to take on the development and offer 
a lower price? Why isn't there some embedded system development company 
that is agressively going after these projects and offering Ada with a 
cost advantage? If they had a bunch of reusable components for the 
problem domain and they were DO-178b certified, they'd have all that 
leverage to bring to the table too.

We can claim that Ada is superior and bitch because someone else won't 
see that and use it and call them boneheads for doing so. Alternately, 
if we really believed in its superiority, we'd have companies offering 
an Ada alternative and be out-competing the other bidders with low 
cost/high quality alternatives. I guess Ada needs a little more 
entrepreneurial spirit if it expects to get in the door on these things. ;-)

MDC


Per Dalgas Jakobsen wrote:
> 
> Yes I would, because that thing has to be validated, tested, etc., etc.
> 
> But I would hate to pay the bill, and I would definitely hate to be the
> project manager that has to tell the bosses that it won't complete on
> schedule.
> 
> Per
> 
> 


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Marin David Condic
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