CRITICAL PAPERS

bespin.cx/pub/tunes/list/ultra/9903/msg00005.html

An e-mail written by a critic of Design By Contract, which discusses several positive aspects of DBC (i.e. that it should help catch some bugs and flawed design, or that it enhances program documentation), and some negative aspects ( for example, that the enforcement of assertions by the Eiffel compiler might not go as far as desired )

jovial.com/background/SmalltalkVCpp.html

A criticism of VisualBasic, C++, Eiffel, and Smalltalk. The author presents some reflections about tools that could possibly be used for upcoming software projects, and where they might or might not be appropriate. The critique was written with a particular type of software in mind: specifically, business systems written for the medical industry.

users.deltanet.com/~tegan/ariane.html

A paper discussing the software bug that caused the Ariane V crash. It contains a list of the factoids surrounding the software bug. The author omits for brevity the fact that the software in question did not really need to execute during flight. The software bug was in the controller for a gyroscope used to balance the rocket on the launch pad.

www.dcc.uchile.cl/~fcornejo/xcoral/NQ-comments.html

A site with comments on the Java programming style

www.pqic.com/PQIC/oosd.htm

A paper praising Bertrand Meyer's book Object Oriented Software Construction, 2nd edition. The critc states: "The book under review is most definitely a work from a philosopher's mind, who just coincidentally happens to be a software developer, and knows it. The author makes no attempt to hide these facts; indeed, he continually makes use of literary examples, philosophical parallels, and even stretches of mathematical analogy to make his points. When it comes to poetic descriptions of what would otherwise be a dry subject, the book under review is certainly a paragon."

www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~geldridg/cpp/cppcv3.html

A critique of C++ (3rd edition). This is a long critique which attempts to arrange the traps and flaws in C++ into categories and principles. One desired outcome of this critique is that it should awaken the industry about the C++ myth and the fact that there are now viable alternatives to C++ that do not suffer from as many technical problems.

www.slashdot.org/books/99/02/24/1025219.shtml

A review of the book Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems. This is a high level overview of intelligent agents that is suitable for someone getting started in the field. One of the criticisms dealt with in this paper is that the book tried to take on too much. While trying to cover every aspect involved in developing agents, it ends up covering none of them very well. Instead of detailed coverage of any subject, we get a brief introduction to a wide spread of subjects and pointers for further information.

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