Re: Beating a dead horse (was something else entirely)

Re: Beating a dead horse (was something else entirely)

[Robert Kitzberger]

mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:

>In <SANDY.93Jun4101033@beeker.cs.umass.edu> sandy@beeker.cs.umass.edu (Sandy W
ise) writes:
>
>>Remember the Northeast long-distance blackout? It was directly
>>attributed to the semantics of 'break'.
>
>Nonsense!  It was directly attributable to someone not knowing what
>they were doing.  If you think using Ada is going to automatically
>make programs error free, even when munged on by someone who doesn't
>know the language, I don't think I want *my* life depending on what
>you might produce!

Nonsense!  [no, wait a second, take a deep breath...]

Nobody really expects that Ada is "going to make programs error free"...
I've never actually heard anyone say that, in written or spoken
form -- and certainly Sandy Wise (the original poster) didn't say that.

Engineer's abilities are scattered all over the spectrum, and many
(most?) should probably be doing something else rather than developing
life-critical systems.  This is the real situation.  Simply saying
that all engineers should be brilliant neglects the fact that many are
fresh out of school, that many have bad days from time to time, etc.
Have you never misplaced a break statement?  No rolling off the end of
arrays?  Ever?

You also seem to be ignoring the fact that the code in question should
have been examined in peer reviews and code walkthroughs with people
that DO know what they are doing.  Since they didn't catch it, does
that mean that they were inept?  Hardly.  People make mistakes; some
tools do a better job of catching your simple mistakes than others.

>"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
> in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden

...but people that strive for perfect safety usually come closer to it than
those that don't.   (This isn't meant as a personal affront, but merely as
a counterpoint to the quotation's capricious attitude).

	.Bob.
--
Bob Kitzberger                          Internet:   rlk@rational.com
Rational, Grass Valley, CA              CompuServe: 70743,1550
"Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called
 upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason." -- Oscar Wilde