Re: Have you ever had a bug caused by...

[David Bolen <db3l@fitlinxx.com>]

"Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> writes:

> There is also an advantage to getting some kind of runtime exception in a
> fielded system as well. If an index gets out of range under unusual
> conditions not tested for, yes this is a programmer error. But unlike
> silently running off the end of an array and scrogging memory with possibly
> non-fatal, yet serious problems being generated, Ada is going to halt the
> code and (if the implementation is nice!) report where it stopped and why.
> In most apps that is *usually* a good thing.

Oh agreed.  But in any of those cases where such a situation may only
be detectable at runtime (and I agree Ada does also have a number that
can be caught during compiletime), then I'd avoid saying that Ada
precludes code with such a bug, and rather state that Ada helps ensure
a more robust system with its runtime checks.  The bug is obviously
still there.  Maybe its nit-picking, but if the game is why Ada is
better than xxx, then I think in fairness it needs to be approached
the right way.  As it is, such handling is of no small benefit, so I'd
hate it to be overshadowed by someone on the xxx side picking a
slightly too grandiose claim apart :-)

--
-- David
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