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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,CP1252 X-Google-Thread: 103376,e19490e677bf2a26 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-01-29 17:51:54 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!newsfeed2.dallas1.level3.net!news.level3.com!zeus.visi.com!priapus.visi.com!orange.octanews.net!news.octanews.net!news-out.visi.com!petbe.visi.com!newshosting.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!news-feed01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!prodigy.com!prodigy.com!pd7cy2so!pd7cy1no!shaw.ca!border1.nntp.ash.giganews.com!border2.nntp.sjc.giganews.com!border1.nntp.sjc.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local1.nntp.sjc.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 19:51:46 -0600 Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 20:51:45 -0500 From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Use of Ada in the NIF References: <4b0b52a9.0401291710.69a8f786@posting.google.com> In-Reply-To: <4b0b52a9.0401291710.69a8f786@posting.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.147.77.160 X-Trace: sv3-bWzSXdNthxtv+/x0pM1rAsPFVsFBLXLx+b3fIUDqWXMs4ZHaliVEoyqBuZBuc99KkQOqWPTSpw9ce3l!z+skM/mn2x+LAoKkuWCDUypUi/+FbGhmwEXXNrUb0lg+PWTsY7ItDCizkQOCDQ== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.1 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5080 Date: 2004-01-29T20:51:45-05:00 List-Id: Gioia Tauro wrote: > "Since control room operation started, the rate has been at its > highest, exceeding 300 per month (385 SCRs were filed in October 2002, > the last month for which data are available). The high rate is > attributable mostly to the intense scrutiny due to multiple test > cases, and to the first-ever > integration of all subsystems in a hardware test that fires > experimental shots." > > Would you have the same situation when a control room staff operations > start up for a NASA satellite ? Absolutely not. I would suggest > keeping an eye on whatever can be known about the actual operations > for NIF to learn whether Ada and the software process it implies have > actually been applied. The answer can be found if you read a little further. First you have to realize that, as implemented, this is a real-time system with extremely precise timing requirements. The system as a whole is distributed across more than a hundred CPUs, but when crunch time comes, some timing requirements are measured in nanoseconds. Second: The ICCS presently contains some 612 KSLOC�s of delivered code. 63% of the code inventory is in Ada, 26% is in Java and the balance is divided between C, HTML and shell scripts. The measurement protocols exclude significant parts of the software inventory, which totals approximately 2.0 million SLOCS. The exclusions arise from redundant materials (for example units in the inventory of multiple operating systems), code that was automatically generated by translation tools (such as CORBA server skeletons), and COTS products. It is hard to determine what the "real" SLOC count is for error counting purposes, since apparently CORBA object declarations are not counted as source code. But the ball park figure is in the 1 to 3 million SLOC. The defect reports indicate an error rate of between one and two bugs detected so far per KSLOC. But there is a final detail you have to understand. This is not a NASA control room. This is more like building a warship. Some debugging of software can be done elsewhere, but the real-time nature of the system as a whole means that system integration has to take place on the actual system. If you do want to compare to NASA, you should be interested in comparing the number of open problem reports when the NIF becomes operational to the number of open problem reports for the support software for a NASA satallite when launched. (This number is typically non-zero. For example known bugs in ground data reduction software for a satellite won't prevent launch. In fact even the on-orbit software for some planetary missions has been rewritten several times after launch. Voyager II was the extreme case...) So given the development plan and the type of facility being developed, I'd say that this level of software problem reports would probably be ranked as a moderate risk by the contracting agency at the time the report was written. -- Robert I. Eachus "The war on terror is a different kind of war, waged capture by capture, cell by cell, and victory by victory. Our security is assured by our perseverance and by our sure belief in the success of liberty." -- George W. Bush