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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,d89b08801f2aacae X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-01 20:01:38 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-01!supernews.com!207.217.77.43.MISMATCH!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!easynet-melon!easynet.net!psiuk-p2!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is strong typing worth the cost? Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 11:52:37 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <27085883.0205010632.4c8225d8@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1020268358 15305 136.170.200.133 (1 May 2002 15:52:38 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 May 2002 15:52:38 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:23389 Date: 2002-05-01T15:52:38+00:00 List-Id: In the metrics I was involved in collecting that demonstrated a factor of four reduction in errors by using Ada, we did exactly that. We did an analysis of the change requests filed against the systems and categorized them to determine what sort of errors went away. One of the categories that saw the largest reductions was one that dealt with various math errors relating to scaled integers versus Ada's fixed point types (with related type checking). It was strong evidence that the strong typing Ada provided contributed significantly to error reduction. Of course, this implies that the shop in question has some sort of change request system or other data source to analyze. I know of lots of software operations where change control and configuration management are either non-existent or so primitive that you wouldn't have the information needed to determine what the bugs were. You can't improve your process if you don't have a process. :-) MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com "Mike Silva" wrote in message news:27085883.0205010632.4c8225d8@posting.google.com... > > How about doing what I did: keep track of each bug found in their > currently-developing code, and then determine whether strong typing > would have either prevented it or turned a multi-day debug into a > multi-minute debug. This will prove to be a very sobering exercise, > especially in the case of bugs so nasty that they had programmers > considering new careers in door-to-door sales. >