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From: Richard D Riehle <laoxhai@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Fortran or Ada?
Date: 1998/10/05
Message-ID: <6vavn6$gra@sjx-ixn4.ix.netcom.com>#1/1
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References: <3617AA49.340A5899@icon.fi> <6v9s4t$egn$1@ys.ifremer.fr>
 <3618dc33.0@news.passport.ca>
Organization: ICGNetcom
X-NETCOM-Date: Mon Oct 05 10:30:14 AM PDT 1998
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1998-10-05T10:30:14-07:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <3618dc33.0@news.passport.ca>,
	"Ian St. John" <istjohn@high-sense.com> wrote:

>The software was *correct* for the mission it was designed for ( Arianne
>4 ). You cannot expect software re-use without evaluation of the
>interface/inputs.

Software reuse, particularly application-specific software reuse, is full of
risks.  It is much like giving a pill prescribed by a physician for one 
person to some other person whose body chemistry is intolerant of that same
medication.  The pill may be benign for one set of circumstances and deadly
for another.  

When a physician is guilty of an error in phamacological "reuse" we call
it malpractice.  Arianne V was a clear case of software malpractice.  The
engineers used an otherwise benign software module for a system that was
intolerant of it.  The doctor is required to ask, "Are you allergic to 
any medications?"  No one seems to have asked an analogous question when
designing Arianne V.

Richard Riehle
richard@adaworks.com
http://www.adaworks.com