Re: Ada ad in Embedded Systems Programming stinks

[jgoodsen@trinidad.radsoft.com (John Goodsen)]

In article <34ecqc$b5q@source.asset.com> bishopm@source.asset.com (Michael M. Bishop) writes:

   From: bishopm@source.asset.com (Michael M. Bishop)
   Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
   Date: 5 Sep 1994 02:11:24 -0400
   Organization: Asset Source for Software Engineering Technology

   In article <CvFI4J.D5M@world.std.com>,
   Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com> wrote:
   [snip...]
   >      "What's more, the compilers will stop, rather than allow incorrect code
   >to go through".  Are you serious???   Do you think anyone will be impressed
   >by this claim?  Has anyone at DISA ever looked at current C/C++ compilers,
   >which stop when they encounter errors and jump you back into the code, a
   >feature that has been around for years?  As a marketing teaser, this statement
   >is useless.  You might as well claim that Ada compilers allow you to compile,
   >link and run from the same pulldown menu.

   pragma Soapbox (On)

   Anybody with an ounce of software engineering sense should be impressed
   by the above claim! A couple of years ago (1990-91, actually), I did
   some development work on some NASA applications in which I was forced to
   write in C. In C, of course, if you want to supply an OUT or IN OUT
   parameter as an actual, you have to pass its address. C compilers
   couldn't care less whether or not you actually pass an address. (I think
   ANSI C compilers give you a *warning* - big deal: it still accepts the 
   code). 

Wrong. A respectable ANSI C compiler will yell louder than a warning.
And puke out on the compile when you don't pass a pointer when expected.
-- 
--
John Goodsen                         Currently on-site at:
The Dalmatian Group                       JP Morgan 
User Interface Specialists                60 Wall St., New York City
jgoodsen@radsoft.com                      jgoodsen@jpmorgan.com