Re: Critique of Ariane 5 paper (finally!)

[donh@syd.csa.com.au (Don Harrison)]

Ken Garlington wrote:

:This "attack" was predicated (in part) on the following
:points, which I challenged:
:
:1. That there was not enough evidence that Java could
:scale to large projects. I questioned whether this
:was really a fundamental obstacle, since there are
:also concerns about the scalability of Eiffel. 

It's also said that Goody Proctor is a witch. :)  However, even though the 
inhabitants of Salem readily believed it, saying so didn't make her one. 
(Apologies to Arthur Miller, author of "The Crucible". BTW, the recent film 
by the same name is well worth watching for any student of mass hysteria.)

I'm still waiting to see a valid argument why Eiffel software is not scalable. 
I don't have the time or desire to argue why it *is* scalable (and there are 
others better qualified to do so), but two contributing factors stand out:

1) The existence of configuration "modules" which support framework (cluster)
   hierarchies - this makes configuration scalable.

   See the section titled "Scalability" in Walden and Nerson - "Seamless 
   Object-oriented Software Architecture" P. 18-19.

2) The ability to encapsulate high-level abstractions in high-level classes 
   using standard design patterns - this makes abstraction and contracting 
   scalable.


Don.
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Don Harrison             donh@syd.csa.com.au