Re: Critique of Ariane 5 paper (finally!)

[dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

In article <33F22AD8.41C67EA6@eiffel.com>, Bertrand.Meyer@eiffel.com says...
>
>It seems that the idea of using modern techniques to
>improve software reliability shocks some people so much
>that they will find no argument too low in their effort
>to suppress it. Won't work.


Obviously this is a red herring, since no one acts that way. But I suspect
what we have here is

(a) I have a wonderful method, look here ...
(b) My goodness, you guys aren't using my method ...
(c) The only explanation I can think of is the above paragraph

(a) and (b) OK, but (c) is hardly a clear conclusion :-)

No one is trying to suppress anything, they are just being skeptical of
the claims you are making. If you do not expect such skepticism, then
you really have eebn too walled up in the ivory tower! But really you
perfectly well know enough of the real world to know that new techniques
are a hard sell, if nothing else because most of them are over-hyped and
either not nearly so useful as advertised, or useless, or even actively
unhelpful. It is no surprise for people to be skeptical!