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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: a07f3367d7,f096ebb5dcac664d X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,public,usenet X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news3.google.com!feeder.news-service.com!188.40.43.213.MISMATCH!feeder.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!not-for-mail From: Nicholas Paul Collin Gloucester Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ariane 5 Failure from 1996 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:49:37 +0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <851f477d-c5a4-4c87-b930-4a47ba508579@h8g2000yqm.googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.eternal-september.org U2FsdGVkX1+FAdZzES5S3CxkuTJNtuyeAdOg17F2RhY3zFMu6LPtH8ZytSTWJqNnsseS6oCgVgcFqB2oo2eNxpDndK7a1M26Iu+n9P6t0Xj+xuaRqjSQd3GTVvu5loz3iWPww5MNfJTODYglpEEoiKzZTdsIzcN9JKWfF6iz4t0= X-Complaints-To: abuse@eternal-september.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:49:37 +0000 (UTC) X-Auth-Sender: U2FsdGVkX1+fg8jFRegNecTEdSai96Lxi/DPYeAz2T/2eg5+oMx8UjGZ4H5760ISWz1pMOxtTEE= Cancel-Lock: sha1:BKnvYzdFjlGTXGlEwSq3QotE464= User-Agent: slrn/0.9.9p1 (Linux) Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:7044 Date: 2009-07-14T13:49:37+00:00 List-Id: On 2009-07-14, John B. Matthews wrote: |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"In article | |, | |Marco wrote: | | | |> On Jul 10, 11:17??am, "John B. Matthews" wrote:| |> | |> > > To me the whole section on Ada sounds like a typical spiel from | |> > > someone who really doesn't know Ada and has picked up a load of | |> > > anti-Ada propaganda from a number of disparate sources. | |> | |> It doesn't sound particularly anti-Ada to me. Just anti only-one- | |> language I doubt he has much experience in Ada. | |> | |> > The article claims, "had the system been written in C, the disaster | |> > would probably never have happened!" That conclusion is unsupported | |> > in the article. | |> | |> Mr Henney is a respectable SW writer. I assume he meant that if it | |> was written in C that more extensive testing would have occurred but | |> he should have said that or otherwise defended his statement. | | | |He is also "an author who writes on the subject of computer programming | |in C and C++," as well as "a member of the Association of C and C++ | |Users": | | | | | | | | | |As he is a noted author, I would have liked to hear his thoughts. Too | |often, proponents of less strongly typed languages argue that some | |combination of skill, experience and discipline are as effective as Ada, | |and less expensive. This seems contradictory. | | | |If I may extend the automotive analogy: the Ariane 5 project reused the | |ABS from a sedan in a truck without testing it in the truck. Well, | |except for the one time." | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| I do not appreciate why you would want to hear from Kevlin Henney as you know that he believes and writes bull. However, I was surprised and displeased that he was a speaker at an Ada UK event earlier this decade. I am also a member of the Association of C & C++ Users. In response to an email from me on one of our email lists, he claimed that taking a precaution to protect against accidentally using = instead of == is not worthwhile. However, to be fair to him, he has treated Ada better than many other C++ advocates. (I have noticed today that he coauthored something with Mordechai Ben-Ari. That is a surprise.)