Re: What is wrong with Ada?

[<adaworks@sbcglobal.net>]

"Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> wrote in message 
news:krrspgzz88g4$.15lzsnhxml4j.dlg@40tude.net...
>
> It is because SW engineering is not engineering. And that is because CS is
> not much science. It rather sways between applied mathematics and "stamp
> collecting."
>
Dmitry, you are one of the contributors to this forum for whom
I have great respect.   On this point I must, if not outright disagree,
then clarify.

The fact that most programmers are not engineers is certainly correct.
However, this does not mean that those involved in software practice
cannot apply engineering principles, methods, and ideas to the development
of software.

There are clearly some points in software practice where we fall short of
being able to apply engineering.   On the other hand, there are a lot of
opportunities to take advantage of what we know about engineering.

Engineering is the largely about achieving predictable results and avoiding
failure.   It requires that we leverage knowledge from science, mathematics,
and previous engineering experience.  It also requires that we are able to
reason about and reconcile the trade-offs between conflicting constraints:
physical world constraints, logical constraints, economic constraints, etc.

In the 1970's and later in the 1980's Kenneth Kolence published his works
on "software physics."  This work, while good in many ways, also helps us
to understand the limitations of software from the perspective of natural
forces.   Natural forces are inherent in most engineering disciplines.

Kolence's work also opens the door to understanding with regard to what
we need in the way of a physics of software, if such a physics is ever to make
sense.   Physics is about relationships in behavior between different things.
We have the same issues in software.  But there are none of the inherent
constraints that the natural world imposes.

As software engineers, we need to define, create, and impose our own
constraints.   That is part of the engineering responsibility for a software
engineer.  At the component level, we have Design by Contract (Bertrand
Meyer), and other attempts at doing this kind of thing.   We are a long
way off from achieving the level of capability we eventually will require.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of good engineering practice in place for software,
even though most of it is ignored by programmers.  One reason I like Ada is
that it is designed so we can introduce some engineering into our designs.  Ada
is not yet at the place where we can do engineering at the level we could in a
physical process, but it is a step in the right direction.

Future software development tools will extend on those we now have and make
engineeering of software even more feasible.   Meanwhile, we have many options
for the application of engineering in the creation of software.  The fact that
we do not use them is the sad thing.

Finally, the shortcomings of current engineering practice simply mean that we
need to work harder to develop improved approaches to engineeering software
solutions in the future.

Richard Riehle