Re: Faulty languages and Liability

[Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <3D0C7C0B.5000707@mail.com>, Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> writes:
> Robert C. Leif wrote:
>> I was hoping to find a lawyer to speak on software product liability
> 
> It's a pretty sad state of affairs when you are reduced to trying
> to force people to use Ada at the point of a gun. And of course
> that *was* tried with the govenrnment mandate and it failed.

I am not the person you quote, but my interest as a software (including
embedded software) consumer has only to do with how well it works, not
with how that is achieved.  If a vendor wants to provide me software,
be it an Ada compiler or an airbag controller, that is written in the
APL programming language, that is immaterial to me so long as the result
is high reliability.

As a citizen with some knowledge of the field, I think Ada is far
superior to most languages, although languages differences can be
swept away by differences in company attitude.  A company that used
Ada and sought my investment in their stock would find that using
Ada was not my sole criterion, even as regards reliability of
software.

> I also point out to you that when your house is broken into or your
> car is stolen, you're not going to have any luck suing the makers
> of the locks.

LoJack promises a refund if they can't find your car.  The idea of
suing a high-security lock manufacturer if that was the entry point
is not out of the question, but the likelihood of that being the
entry point is low.

> If I was sued becuase I didn't use Ada, I would point out to the
> jury the results of using Ada on the Ariane 5. You may think it's
> unfair, but, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my worthy opponent
> wants my client to use software which demonstrably resulted in
> millions of dollars of damage and loss.

Certainly you should argue that no other rocket has ever crashed.

But as a I said, there are other criteria besides using Ada,
such as not trying to use the unmodified Ariane 4 software in
the Ariane 5 rocket.