Re: Ada noob here! Is Ada widely used?

[tmoran@acm.org]

>> The technical problem is that mechanical components faults have a
>> stochastic nature. I.e. you have a certain probability of fault (due
>> to physical processes involved in production and function of the given
>> component). On the contrary, a software fault is not stochastic,
>> neither in its production nor at run-time. A given bug is either here
>> or not.
>
>Whether the bug is encountered is sometimes stochastic. But generally
>you are correct.
  There are a set of bugs in a given piece of software.  On any given
day, there's a certainly probability that's when you will stumble
across one.  When you remove a bug you remove its probability component
so the total probability of going a day without a bug is now larger
(assuming any newly introduced bug is less likely than the removed one).
Bugs that are more likely to bite will be found and removed sooner,
so the rate of finding bugs will tend to drop.  This is all describable
with simple probability and statistics.  If you want to claim it's
"not stochastic" then I would claim neither is a physical fault - the
pressure applied today on the weak joint either is or is not sufficient
to cause a fracture, and metal fatigue weakening is a straightforward
physical process.