horst@pcsbst.UUCP (horst) (12/04/89)
The recent discussion initiated by Ted Holdon's article surprised me a bit. Nobody answered the argument that I thought would be THE one in favor of Ada: It's not the programmers that decide which language to use in the future In the European Market we expect to have laws in 1992 that resemble the American Laws of Product Responsibility. As far as I know, those can make an implementor responsible for any consequences of using an implementation language which is not considered the best choice. And there are strong signals that Ada will be the default 'best choice' for lawyers. Is this not true for the US? Regards Horst hk@pcs.com
forsyth@minster.york.ac.uk (12/14/89)
>From horst@pcsbst.UUCP (horst) >... Nobody answered the argument that I thought would be THE one >in favor of Ada: > It's not the programmers that decide which language to use in the future >In the European Market we expect to have laws in 1992 that resemble the >American Laws of Product Responsibility. As far as I know, those can make >an implementor responsible for any consequences of using an implementation >language which is not considered the best choice. And there are strong >signals that Ada will be the default 'best choice' for lawyers. Is this >not true for the US? Horst Kern reports a novel approach to software engineering: let the lawyers do it. What a good way of settling technical arguments! (See Jacques Ellul's `The Technological Society' [La Technique] for some interesting consequences of similar ideas.) Still, I suppose it was no more than computer scientists deserved for having the temerity to write `expert systems' in Prolog to analyse the British Nationality Act (1981). I take it that EEC legislators will suffer similar penalties if they produce poor `products' of their own? Stoppage of claret, perhaps? Mind you, a good QC with some help (technical advice and an annotated copy of all those AI-123 notes) should have lots of fun with Ichbiah in the witness box. Perhaps we should book Leo McKern now?
horst@pcsbst.UUCP (horst) (12/23/89)
In article <629649952.9223@minster.york.ac.uk> forsyth@minster.york.ac.uk writes: > Horst Kern reports a novel approach to software engineering: let the > lawyers do it. What a good way of settling technical arguments! (See Okay, I can see the problem: Even though everyone was called to participate in the Ada effort, some people - like Edsgar Dijkstra - have given their reasons for repelling all three language proposals and are now hoping that the Russians will use Ada too. (He made this statement 6 years ago so it is perhaps not up to date any more.) The current discussion makes it evident that the laws (again this word which is so much disliked) of nature have not yet been discovered in computer science. So I think it is a good discussion and nobody should tell Ted Holdon to shut up. Best regards, Horst