From: mjsilva@my-deja.com
Subject: Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope?
Date: 2000/07/25
Date: 2000-07-25T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <8lklel$3c$1@nnrp1.deja.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com
In article <397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com>,
Richard Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>
> mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> > We're bidding on a custom industrial controller, and I've proposed
to
> > write the firmware in Ada. The powers-that-be here are satisfied
with
> > that, but the customer is afraid nobody will be around to maintain
it.
> > They're happier with C or C++, alas. Anybody have any good answers
to
> > their concern?
> >
>
> This situation is so common that we should have some kind of canned
> response. However,
> there are a lot of people out there who will never be persuaded about
the
> virtues of Ada over
> C and C++ regardless of what facts are presented. A bunch of
misinformed
> software developers
> at a mid-west USAF base comes to mind.
>
> Someone once said, "He convinced against his will is of the same
opinion
> still." Your customer
> will continue to be wary of Ada simply because of the widespread
mythology
> about it.
>
> A few things can be said that might make sense. An Ada program,
> well-written will probably be
> more readable ten years from now than any program in C or C++ by a
> programmer who has never
> seen any of the above mentioned languages. The Ada compiler you
used for
> the project will
> still be around somewhere. If someone understands the nature of
firmware,
> that same someone
> will have no difficulty understanding your Ada code unless you make
it so
> cryptic that it reads like
> C or C++ just to be mischievous.
>
> That being said, I doubt you will have any success persuading the
customer
> that Ada is a better
> choice. Such people make up their minds, like the previously
mentioned
> software developers, and
> simply close their minds to anything different from what they have
already
> decided. You could write
> the code in both languages and let them see the difference. Doubt
that
> will help, but it might be worth
> a try.
I don't sense they have an active animus towards Ada, but only a
concern about maintenance. I've prepared a response that tries to
point out the technical benefits of Ada and the relative unsuitability
of C/C++ for high reliability software (I found quite a few quotes from
DoD and NASA documents that help). I've also tried to emphasize that a
decent embedded programmer should pick up maintenance Ada quickly and
that, OTOH, most of the vast pool of C/C++ programmers are not
necessarily qualified to do embedded programming.
Anyway, I'll give it my best shot. The more I step back from C/C++ the
more unsuitable it seems to me for creating reliable software (and the
more important reliability becomes in my priorities).
Mike
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2000-07-25 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 61+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2000-07-17 0:00 Customer balks at Ada -- any hope? mjsilva
2000-07-17 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
2000-07-19 0:00 ` David Starner
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-20 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
2000-07-21 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-17 0:00 ` mjsilva
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Stanley R. Allen
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Rennie Allen
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Stanley R. Allen
2000-07-20 0:00 ` Joseph C Williams
2000-07-21 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
2000-07-18 0:00 ` mjsilva
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` nabbasi
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Pascal Obry
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Florian Weimer
2000-07-28 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
2000-07-28 0:00 ` Philip Anderson
2000-07-28 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-31 0:00 ` Harry Erwin
2000-07-31 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Rennie Allen
2000-07-19 0:00 ` nabbasi
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
2000-07-18 0:00 ` mjsilva
2000-07-18 0:00 ` wv12
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Kieran Mckey
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Customer balks at Ada -- any hope?--Warning Significant Thread Drift Ahead Jeff Creem
2000-07-20 0:00 ` Kieran Mckey
2000-07-28 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Customer balks at Ada -- any hope? fdebruin
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Kieran Mckey
2000-07-18 0:00 ` Scott Ingram`
2000-07-26 0:00 ` Dale Pontius
2000-07-26 0:00 ` Scott Ingram
2000-07-26 0:00 ` Florian Weimer
2000-07-27 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-26 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
2000-07-19 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
2000-07-19 0:00 ` mjsilva
2000-07-24 0:00 ` Richard Riehle
2000-07-25 0:00 ` mjsilva [this message]
2000-07-25 0:00 ` Gary Scott
2000-07-25 0:00 ` gdemont
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