problems/risks due to programming language

[Douglas Miller]

In article <10811 at june.cs.washington.edu>, machaffi at fred.cs.washington.edu (Scott MacHaffie) writes:
> In article <8103 at hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu at hubcap.clemson.edu writes:
>>   introduced.  However, we cannot disregard that fact that Ada was
>>   specifically designed to provide maximal support for the software 
>>   engineering process.  C, on the other hand, was designed to provide
> 
> No, ADA was designed to have everything.  The fact that it (or some subset
> of it) can be used to do software engineering doesn't mean it was designed
> to do it.

Valid but utterly vacuous point, as ADA *was* designed to provide maximal
support for software engineering.  I suppose its possible that another
(hidden?) design goal was to "have everything".  So what?

>    Software engineering can be done in any language, including C.

Irrelevant --- the claim here is that ADA provides *maximal* *support* for
the software engineering process.  Like, if I said "Air travel is the
fastest way to get to another city" and you said "You don't have to go by
`plane.  You could go by car, or even on foot", then I'd look at you with a
slightly glazed expression, right?   Sorry to labor this, but I've seen the
above point made *too* many times.