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From: pontius@btv.vnet.mbi.com (Dale Pontius)
Subject: Re: Death of DSP support?
Date: 1997/09/03
Message-ID: <5ujke7$165c$1@mdnews.btv.ibm.com>#1/1
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References: <3402E91D.6D1A@top.monad.net> <dewar.872631281@merv>
 <1997Aug27.125655.1@eisner> <dewar.872721039@merv>
 <5u86eg$n8d@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net> <5uisg7$k28@sjx-ixn8.ix.netcom.com>
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X-Trace: mdnews.btv.ibm.com 873288967 39084 (None) 9.66.92.124
Organization: IBM Microelectronics Division
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-09-03T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In article <5uisg7$k28@sjx-ixn8.ix.netcom.com>,
        Richard D Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> writes:
> one non-DoD software manager who is trying to decide whether to move away
> from C++ with either Eiffel or Ada.  Perhaps, as Ada is discovered by real
> engineers outside the DoD, it will be able to survive the stupidity of
> software managers who abandon Ada for C.  I hope so.

There is a corporate phenomenon called, "fast track," which is often
synonymous with , "outrunning your mistakes." In an industry which
fashions itself to have "Web Years" that are under 3 months now, the
C/C++ mindset that favors quick and dirty development seems well
seated and well matched. To dislodge that mindset may well take some
sort of "software disaster" that none of us really want to see.

The reentry/landing software for Pathfinder was written in C. They
interviewed the programmer on TV a while back. He spoke of the 140+
explosive devices he had to set off at the correct times, that it
was all written in C, and that he was sweating bullets the entire
reentry that he might have made some trivial mistake.

Was Ada even a candidate there? Obviously there's little matter of
maintenance on such "use once" software, though the need for correct
behaviour is absolute in such cases. Perhaps more "rapid development"
tools for Ada are called for, in order to give it a better chance in
such markets.

Dale Pontius
(NOT speaking for IBM)