Re: Have you ever had a bug caused by...

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

Perhaps you could collect up the contributions and submit it to AdaPower for
the FAQ:

Q: What sort of errors does Ada do an excellent job of catching that
typically go unnoticed in other languages?

A: <list of typical C/C++/Java bugs that can't happen in Ada>

I wish I still had the link to a study done by Lucent concerning C errors in
one of their big switches. The bulk of the most common errors were things
that couldn't happen in Ada. Their answer? Publish coding standards and
audit the code by hand. Let's see..... My fully burdened labor cost is how
many dollars an hour? And a compiler can do the checking at how many dollars
an hour? And if I field a product with errors in it, that could cost me how
many dollars in warranty costs and lawsuits? Hmmmmmmmm...... Why is it I'm
insisting on using C again??? :-)

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/

"Mike Silva" <mjsilva697@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:27085883.0110191714.784d3d25@posting.google.com...
> While discussing (er, pushing) Ada with some C-coding co-workers today
> I asked a question to which I knew the answer (always the best kind!):
>  "Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an
> array?"  Well, of course, they all had to say yes.  Then I started
> thinking of other bugs that they would have to admit to, and which
> wouldn't occur in Ada.  Nothing new here (Ada prevents many bugs...),
> but I thought it would be fun and useful to develop a group list as an
> Ada advocacy tool.  For example:
>
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an array?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by an implicit type conversion?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by a variable getting set to a value
> outside its designed range?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by different type sizes on different
> platforms?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by mixing incompatible types?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters of incorrect
> types?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters in an incorrect
> order?
>
> Have you ever had a bug caused by different data structure ordering on
> different platforms?
>
>
> And so on.  It might also be nice to have a section of "Have you ever
> wished you could..." questions.
>
> Anyway, such a list strikes me as a potentially useful piece of
> advocacy, should anybody want to offer contributions.
>
> Mike