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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,3d3f20d31be1c33a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Subject: Re: Separation of IF and Imp: process issue? Date: 1997/09/18 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 273687288 References: <33E9ADE9.4709@flash.net> <5upe9k$7he@newshub.atmnet.net> <5utag9$o6s@newshub.atmnet.net> <3416ad14.0@news.uni-ulm.de> Organization: New York University Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1997-09-18T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Darren said <<> Note that the Eiffel spec, while intermingled with the implementation, > is clearly separated. It's unlikely that an Eiffel programmer will > change the spec and not realize it, any more than it's likely a C > programmer will accidentally change the return type of a function and > not realize it. >> Once again, the issue is not about accidental changes, the issue is one of configuration control. If your analogy with C is really appropriate, then it would indicate that your view of things is very different from the Ada view. I do not expect a C programmer to accidentally change the return type of a function. However, I also do not expect a C programmer to realize that there is a huge difference between changing the return type of a funct9ion, and changing something in the body. If there is a bug in a program, then I would expect a typical C programmer to make one or the other kind of modification as needed, without being aware of the critical difference. If you are really right that an Eiffel programmer makes no more distinction between spec and body than typical C programmers, then that's a very negative assessment. However, I would suspect it is probably *too* pessimistic.