Re: Spirit rover OS problems ( a reliable language )

From: Everett M. Greene (mojaveg_at_mojaveg.iwvisp.com)
Date: 02/17/04 

Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 10:52:29 PST

"Scott Moore" <samiam@moorecad.com> writes:
[snip]
> o The software industry is experiencing a general recoil from the
> excess dependence on type unsafe, "party hearty" languages of the
> last century, and trying to move forward to better solutions. The
> C language era has led the software industry to yearly new lows
> in reliability and maintainability.

Interesting assertion and may even be true, but from whence
came the data to support it?

> We, as an industry, have
> completely lost the trust of the general public. We went from having,
> a perhaps undeserved, reputation of infaillability in the mainframe
> and mini era of the 1960s and 1970s,

I seem to recall the same complaints in the 60s and 70s (and 80s
and 90s and...). Programs weren't nearly as bloated in the
earlier days which inherently improves reliability.

> to an unfortunately very
> deserved reputation of constant unreliablity and bug-ridden
> undependability.

Seems to follow the rise of Microsoft into prominence...

> This will be an almost impossible or even completely
> impossible, to remove reputation. The loss of confidence in the US
> automotive, steel and similar industries pales in comparision with
> the bad reputation that the US software industries have gained.
> Many of our software jobs are being exported overseas, especially
> to India, and there is every indication that India's software
> developers, far from being cheap knockoff shops, "get it", why
> the USA lost command of yet another important industry, and are
> emphasising quality over the standard USA values of quantity
> and cut rate, poorly thought out crap.

Most of the work being "outsourced" to India seems to be done
strictly for price.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Outsourcing to India and China
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  • Re: Spirit rover OS problems ( a reliable language )
    ... > o The software industry is experiencing a general recoil from the ... So how does C differ from assembler in this respect? ...
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