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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,912597791e813f68 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-18 15:19:06 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.airnews.net!cabal12.airnews.net!usenet From: "John R. Strohm" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: advantages or disadvantages of ADA over pascal or modula Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 17:16:18 -0600 Organization: Airnews.net! at Internet America Message-ID: <6FD73B2917327E23.5FF84A56513A69C6.AC3092FBD5BCEE58@lp.airnews.net> X-Orig-Message-ID: References: <3E171612.E4E2972@t-online.de> <3E296128.4183B70A@t-online.de> Abuse-Reports-To: abuse at airmail.net to report improper postings NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library2.airnews.net NNTP-Posting-Time: Sat Jan 18 17:16:54 2003 NNTP-Posting-Host: !\TNZ1k-VMmdmYT (Encoded at Airnews!) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:33187 Date: 2003-01-18T17:16:18-06:00 List-Id: "Vinzent Hoefler" wrote in message news:b0cil5$nrsvj$1@ID-175126.news.dfncis.de... > "John R. Strohm" wrote: > > >In other words, trying to save a few pennies on software development > >toolsets is sheer idiocy. > > ACK. But you forgot the usual manager thinking. No, I didn't. Instead, I explain the usual manager thinking, and the way the software engineer must couch the argument so as to work WITHIN the usual manager thinking. Let me give you an example. A buddy of mine once did a contract gig at GM-Delco, several years ago. The project was embedded software for a heads-down display for the new Cadillac. He noticed something interesting. When an engineer told his manager that he needed a certain piece of test equipment, it showed up in the lab, the next day, powered up and ready to go. When he said he needed prototype hardware for debugging, a wire-wrapped prototype showed up in a couple of days, and a printed circuit board showed up a few days later. He inquired, and management explained. In eighteen months, new Cadillacs were going to come rolling off the assembly line. That software HAD to be there, or those cars couldn't be sold. Every day those cars couldn't be sold, General Motors would incur VERY, VERY LARGE interest expenses. GM-Delco had been told that they would NOT be the cause of those expenses. In short, make a GOOD business case that Ada will save time and money, quantify the savings, and point out the costs of missing the deadline. Or you could put it this way: "If we do this in C, we're going to have higher defect rates. If those defects kill someone, there will be an inquiry. Do you really want to be identified, in court, as the man who caused the higher defect rate, that generated the defect, that killed that young mother? Or would you rather be the manager who can honestly sit in that witness stand and say he did EVERYTHING he could to ensure that the defect rate would be as low as possible?"