From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,16e3a8dd4f3ab3f3 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff) Subject: Re: Elaboration order Date: 1996/03/20 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 143391045 references: <314701A1.469D@lfwc.lockheed.com> <4inpiv$alk@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com> <4ip58c$gqo@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com> organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-03-20T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <4ip58c$gqo@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com>, Cordes MJ wrote: >Thanks for the input, but that doesn't help me quantify the risk. Scanning >the machine code for a complex application (assume over 200 packages), looking >for a class of error which neither of us has seen, does not give me any >confidence that we would catch the error if it did show up. Some sort >of automated verification is a possibility, but I need a better understanding >of the risk before I propose a new tool. And getting a grasp on the risk >was the intent of my original post. > >Is there anybody out there who is doing analysis on elaboration order? Sorry if I'm being unhelpful, but: Why are you so interested in elaboration order bugs, when there are thousands of other bugs an Ada compiler *might* have? I see no reason why this one is more likely, or more harmful, than any other bug. (Assuming we're talking about the sort of compiler bug that involves incorrect behavior at run time.) People who write safety critical programs really do analyze the machine code, and that's extremely expensive. Presumably, if the compiler used a wrong elaboration order, then this analysis would catch it just like any other bug (compiler bug *or* programmer bug) -- it would notice, for example, a machine instruction loading from a location that has not yet been set to any value. - Bob