Re: Is strong typing worth the cost?

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

"Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:3CCFFB7F.B8080F7A@despammed.com...
>
> We have the Ada vs. C report from Rational,
> the Ada vs. C report from Plattsburgh (McCormick),
> I read, but can't remember where, an Ada vs. Fortran
> report, and there have been others.
>
Ada vs Some Other Language is at least something that can be tested in a
reasonably scientific manner. Its hard to get truly scientific information
for a whole lot of reasons, but at least we have a few case studies where
all other things were sufficiently equal to give one high confidence in the
conclusions. The OP's interest in specifically "strong typing" I don't think
is something that can be tested readily in a scientific manner because it
can't be separated as the only factor in the experiment.


>
> I'm curious--has anyone _ever_ seen, on the web
> or in print, an article on a successful project where a
> manager or engineer has said, "We would never have
> made it if we had tried to use something other than C."
>
The problem with that observation is that when you're on top of the heap,
you don't typically make statements like this. In many areas, C is just the
accepted way of doing it. Hence, nobody feels the need to say "We couldn't
have done it if we had not used the standard-issue technology that everyone
else successfully builds projects with..." Sort of like no manager ever
getting fired for picking IBM. But if you take a risk by using something off
the beaten path, you later want to credit your success to having made such
Bold, Creative, Insightful Management Decisions.


>
> Has anyone seen a discussion of a project with problems
> where the people actually involved blamed Ada?
>
I vaguely recall some sort of FAA project that didn't do well and used Ada.
People were eager to blame Ada, but IIRC, there was supposed to have been a
bunch of other problems as well. I don't think that proves much since people
blame failures on any convenient target that isn't themselves and so it is
at least a highly subjective measure. Putting too much emphasis on praise or
blame is a symptom of a language with a massive inferiority complex. :-)
Better to think about the solid evidence of Ada's contribution to better
productivity and quality since that is as sound argument for using it.


> (Ariane 5 does not count--the only people
> that blame Ada there are Ada-phobes from
> outside the project.)
>
<Butchered_Old_Movie_Quote>
There it is! There it is! Every time we start talking about software
failures some dude's gotta go pull Ariane 5 outa his rectum!!! :-)
</Butchered_Old_Movie_Quote>

It really is an old saw that ought to go on the list along with "Ada was
designed by committee", "Ada runs slow", "You can't do systems programming
in Ada", etc.

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