> A rewrite would introduce new bugs, even if they aren't memory issues. OTOH, a rewrite could be useful in splitting up the problem-space as well as reducing

> A rewrite would introduce new bugs, even if they aren't memory issues. OTOH, a rewrite could be useful in splitting up the problem-space as well as reducing errors. This is where Ada excels, and one nice way of splitting the problem-space could be in providing types (perhaps with provable properties via SPARK) that properly decompose the problem-space. -- Small, quick/dirty "back-of-napkin" design. Package Uniform_Resource_Locator is Type Protocol is (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, ETC ); Type URL is private; Function Get_Protocol(Object : URL) return Protocol; -- other operations. Function Parse(Text : String) return URL; -- Text to URL. Function "+"(Object : URL) return String; -- URL to Text. Private Type URL is record --... end record; End Uniform_Resource_Locator; > The rewrite could end up buggier than the original. Given the properties of a language like Ada, you could decompose the problem-space into types (like above) and leverage the language properties to ensure the correctness of the program. For example, Ada mandates full-coverage on cases can so when you say `case Get_Protocol(The_URL) is ...` you have to provide for every value in the enumeration (Protocol here), and the compiler enforces this. So, every place you have a case-statement operating on a Protocol value, absent the `others` option, the compiler will error-out and point you to the location you're missing a value. ...meaning that you can update the Protocol enumeration and have the compiler complain at every location you need to fix/implement the new protocol.