Re: Ada and Automotive Industry

[peb@transcontech.co.uk ("Paul E. Bennett")]

In article <dewar.847642045@merv> dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu "Robert Dewar" writes:

> Paul says
> 
> "is spent testing. When a Forth or Assembler application reaches the final
> stage of being blown into production ROMS it has probably been tested more
> times than most applications written in other languages.
> "
> 
> I trust that testing alone is not considered an acceptable basis for
> verification in such applications!
> 
> (though one of the troubles is that these so-called software engineers
> working in Forth or assembler, are less likely to know, understand, or
> use the kind of formal tools and methodologies that are an integral
> part of writing high integrity software.
 
No, testing alone is not the only basis of the proof. However, the testing 
regimes are quite often far more thorough than most other applications seem 
to get. We use a whole host of validation and verification methods on the 
design and the code before it even sees the test bench. 

In the Real time Forth and Assembler community you will probably find that 
the "software engineers" are not actually software engineers but are hardware 
engineers who have added software to their toolbox.

Incidently, Formal Methods cannot cater for all situations of a Real Time 
System either. They may help but are not the whole answer. It's better to 
have a battery of techniques and methods up your sleeve than rely on one.

Just in case you are wondering about my range of activities, I am essentially 
an electronics engineer with software capabilities in Forth, Assembler, S80, 
D3 and Fortran 4. Forth is most preferred these days. I can establish hazard 
analysis and risk assessment programmes, build safety cases and organise 
distributed embedded systems for large installations with very demanding 
requirements. Most of my systems look after people's safety.

-- 
Paul E. Bennett <peb@transcontech.co.uk>
Transport Control Technology Ltd.
+44 (0)117-9499861
Going Forth Safely