Re: Is Linux right for Embedded?

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Preben Randhol" <randhol+abuse@pvv.org> wrote in message
news:slrn9rng85.220.randhol+abuse@kiuk0156.chembio.ntnu.no...
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2001 17:09:35 -0400, Marin David Condic wrote:
> >
> > Everything you say is true, but when talking to people who develop
> > throw-away code, the emphasis should be on time-to-market and
reliability
> > rather than long-term benefits such as reduced maintenance or reusable
code.
>
> I cannot see that Ada wouldn't accommodate on all these areas. :-)
>

My point was that Ada accommodates all of these things - its just that
long-term support costs aren't of much interest to many developers because
they don't have a "long-term" to care about. In other words, focus on what a
given user *does* care about and explain how Ada helps get them the things
that are important to them. Yes, there are long-term benefits from Ada.
There are also time-to-market benefits (because of early problem
detection/prevention, abstraction, code reuse, etc.) and end-product quality
improvemets (also from early problem detection/prevention)


>
> My hope is that the folks in the fast-moving throw-away market are
> throwing themselves out with the bath water :-) I mean "Good Enough"
> isn't "Good Enough" for the comsumer when he suddenly finds himself with
> a negative bank account on Monday morning due to an software error in a
> banks software which is fixed soonest next day more likely next week. Or
>

There is nothing wrong with throw-away code for some problem domains. Ada
can be used to develop throw-away code - it will also improve the quality of
that throw-away code. The problem isn't that code is written, used and
discarded rather than maintained/enhanced. The problem is that the
discardable code wasn't of very good quality in the first place. There is
such a thing as a "high quality paper towel" and not all towels need to be
made of terrycloth. :-)


MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/