Re: Industry versus academia

[Michael Schuerig <address@hidden>]

On Sunday 23 February 2003 02:55, Sundar Narasimhan wrote:
> >   You gave the example of creating provably correct software for
> > air traffic control. I'm wondering, how large a part of the
> > endeavour is taken by coding? Where are errors most likely? In the
> > implementation? Or rather in the specification? If it's the latter,
> > no programming language is going to help.
>
> BTW.. as someone who works with the aviation industry, I find
> these postings about proving correctness there mildly amusing. This
> is sort of orthogonal to the discussion, but the problems wrt. such
> software are not w/ their construction so much as their ongoing
> maintenance in the field.
>
> There are several essays like the foll. that can be googled.
> http://www.geocities.com/bigmike_75/essays/w/23.html
>
> The problem is still open. I think the FAA ATC project often makes
> number one or number two in largest software failures of all time :)
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/013673443X/104-8616223-
>7373525?vi=glance
>
> Do you really believe that a provably correct programming language
> could have helped in these cases?

No -- that was the point I was trying to make. Even without any 
particular knowledge of ATC, but from ordinary experience in software 
projects and from regularly reading the RISKS digest.

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig                       Face reality and stare it down.
mailto:schuerig@acm.org          --Jethro Tull, "Silver River Turning"
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/