ADA ROBUST SOFTWARE RELIABILITY DEMONSTRATION

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS EFFORT IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE EXTENT TO WHICH CERTAIN FEATURES OF THE ADA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CAN BE USED TO DETECT AND HANDLE HIDDEN SOFTWARE ERRORS WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE HALT PROGRAM EXECUTION. ADA'S TYPING, EXCEPTION HANDLING, AND INTERFACE CHECKIG PROVIDE THE TOOLDS FOR BUILDING SUCH ROBUTNESS INTO SOURCE CODE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS DEMONSTRATION IS TO SHOW HOW ROBUTNESS CAN BE GENERAL ENOUGH TO DETECT AND PARTIALLY COMPENSATE FOR A WIDE RANGE OF ERRORS. THE DEMONSTRATION INCLUDES WRITING ADDITIONAL CODE INTO AN EXISTING COMPLEX ADA PROGRAM, WITH AN INDEPENDENT GROUP OF PROGRAMMERS ATTEMPTING TO INSERT SUBTLE ERRORS WHICH COULD CAUSE FAILURE.