Re: SPARK User Group 2008

["Michael" <Michael@home.ca>]

"Simon Wright" <simon.j.wright@mac.com> wrote in message 
news:m263tiir0x.fsf@mac.com...

> I think you should give some references for your remarks.

Engineering is the reference.

That is also most of this audience.  So, we already knew.

What went wrong?   We just didn't say a word about that!

To compete for a better reliability, shall we put safety at risk?
We could be closed to get rid of the reliability either!

That time that was called "Correctness by Construction".
As usual, that could have being called "running to the wall".  A chance they 
were running fast.  So no one else get hurts, but a few ego.

"Correctness by Construction" had emerged from some Praxis-HIS's "White 
papers", and intrigued at some of the previous annual international 
conferences - on reliable software technologies (e.g.: Ada Europe, next in 
Venice, Italy, 16-20 June) or on the Ada Programming Languages (e.g.: Sig 
Ada, next in Portland, Oregon, 26-30 October).

Ada is not a toy!  Engineering is not a game!

Putting all together diverse abstract methods without engineering experience 
and concern about their limitations is quite irresponsible.

The immediate result which could be expected is a definitive lost of 
visibility on the development process.

Without understanding what software development process has to be, how to 
make decisions which shall not put out of control divergences and 
deficiencies?  Worst, where all these divergences and deficiencies get lost? 
That looks such like a surprise when another operational dysfunction occurs!

A chance they were supposed to all vanished by Correctness by Construction 
as soon the iFACTS project ends.

Indeed that is Correctness by Construction which seems to have vanished from 
the next annual international Ada conferences and the SPARK User Group 
meeting as well.


Is the iFACTS project going to be an Ada success story?  That is the only 
question!

   Yes: there are engineers; they didn't enter the wall.
   No: there are dummies; they are already into the wall.
   No answer: there are ghosts, they went across the wall.

Cheers,

Michael,
Vancouver, (Beautiful British Columbia)


Ada Europe 2005 (York, UK, 20-24 June 2005)
Correctness by Construction - A Manifesto for High Integrity Engineering
"Correctness by Construction is based on a set of principles, distilled from 
practical project experience, to realize systems and software engineering 
outputs with very low defect rate and very high resilience to change."

SIGAda 2007 (Fairfax, Virginia, USA)
Correctness by Construction: Putting Engineering (back) into Software
"The need to "engineer" our software implies that discipline and reasoning 
are required, yet most processes and languages seem to obstruct rather than 
assist such attempts."

NATS new realeases: March 2007
"Final trials of the iFACTS tools are currently under way.
"Praxis is using a unique software engineering approach known as 
"Correctness by Construction" (CbyC) which delivers ultra low defect 
software for critical applications."

NATS Strategic plan for safety 2007.
"iFACTS is planned to enhance Human ATC Performance Risk Prediction at the 
London Area Control in June 2008."