Comparing Development Costs of C and Ada
Stephen F. Zeigler · 2002
Programming Languages often incite zealotry because of theoretic advantages, whether from market acceptance or from intrinsic features. Practical comparisons of languages are more difficult. Some projects, notably prominently failing ones, cite choice of language and tools as a reason for their failure. Analysis is complex however: big projects aren’t done twice in parallel just to see which language/tool choice is better, and even then there would be questions about the relative talent, teamwork, and fortunes of the efforts. This article discusses one case where most variables were controlled enough to make a comparison between development costs of C versus development costs of Ada.