Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!percival!gary
From: gary@percival.UUCP (Gary Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Newest programming skill
Message-ID: <1105@percival.UUCP>
Date: 19 Feb 88 18:39:29 GMT
Reply-To: gary@percival.UUCP (Gary Wells)
Organization: Percy's UNIX, Portland, OR.
Lines: 43
Keywords: Ada, programming skills, commentary

As most of you know, Ada is _THE_ new US Gov't, especially military, programming
language of choice.  Designed by military committee, it has all the 
disadvantages of both a compiler and an interpreter, since it does both.  
Anyway, it will be what SDI programs are written in, as well as any new programming for Social Security, IRS, etc.

From an ad in the February 1988 edition of _NASA Tech Briefs_, Vol 12 # 2,
placed by "alsys", promoting their newest Ada offering:

blah, blah, blah
.
.
.
"It will develop that most elusive skill: the Ada programming intuition to
guess right."
.
.
.
More blathering

I don't mean to picking on anybody, especially "alsys", who, after all, are only
trying to make a living.  But since when is an abilty to "guess right" part
of a good programmers skills?  I don't know about you, but I don't want to trust
my survival (no flames; I support SDI strongly!), or my taxes, or the local 
traffic light to "guesses", right or wrong!

Can't you just see some little microcontroller embedded in a smart rocket, 
saying "I guess that looks like a Soviet tank", and taking out an ice cream
truck?  Or one of OUR tanks?  Wanna trust the IRS with a program that was built
on "guesses" ("Honey, why does the IRS say we owe them $3million dollars?").
How about a traffic light? (If north-south just turned "green", I guess I 
shouldn't let east-west stay green much longer).

Remember "Machines should work.  People should think."?  I propose we change it:

"If machines are guessing, I'm going back to rocks and pointed sticks"

What an awful thing to find out about a programming language named to honor the
first programmer, who certainly didn't "guess"!
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still working on _natural_ intelligence.

gary@percival