Re: Do people who use Ada also use ocaml or F#?

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:56:14 -0400, Robert A Duff wrote:

> Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org> writes:
> 
>> To truly test a generic, you need to test with all possible
>> instantiations.
> 
> To "truly" test a procedure, you have to call it with all
> possible parameter values (and all possible globals,
> if it uses those).

Loaded at all possible memory addresses, etc. There is no such thing as a
"true" test. Some things have to be taken for granted/proved.

>> That's much more effort than testing a single concrete procedure.
> 
> Well, I agree that testing a generic is typically harder
> than testing a single procedure.  That's because generics
> are typically more, um, "general".

No, it is because there are more things which can be safely assumed for a
well-designed procedure than for a well-designed generic.

Furthermore, I would bet that practically any generic can be broken per
erroneous instantiation, e.g. by passing function "-" where "+" expected.
We discard these cases as unlike, but we cannot prove that they indeed do
not happen, until we instantiate, with is the essence of being
non-testable. For procedures testing usually covers the inputs necessary to
deduce that it works for all other inputs. Erroneous usages do not exist or
well known/detectable/preventable.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de