[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
That and your not going to die if something goes wrong with each
built-in safety-switch in your test code... Its hard for me to think
of the implications of failed code compared to implications of a
failed flight. Please don't take offense by this as I understand what
it is you are suggesting but still have a hard time comparing a
computer crash to a plane crash.
On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 10:56:29 +0000, Dave Pawson <davep@dpawson.co.uk> wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-12-30 at 16:33 -0500, David Megginson wrote:
>
> >
> > I find the airplane example interesting, since I just spent the
> > morning with my head stuck under an airplane cowling (burned-out
> > starter solenoid). Obviously, my Piper is fly-by-loose-cable rather
> > than fly-by-wire, but what makes airplane systems safe -- whether
> > they're mechanical or electronic -- is not error-free design and
> > implementation, but an enormous amount of redundancy.
> >
> > The trick is to make sure that there are always at least two ways to
> > do most things (in a cheap plane like mine; sometimes dozens, in
> > commercial airliners) and that they are truly independent of
> > each-other.
>
> I don't think that works on EFA and suchlike, particularly not
> in the realms of software. Provability and testing rules the day in
> that domain. Reliability increases with parallel hardware systems;
> Multiple processors similarly help to check each other, but the actual
> routines used rely on different approaches.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dave Pawson
> XSLT + Docbook FAQ
> http://www.dpawson.co.uk
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an
> initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org>
>
> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
> manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php>
>
>
--
:: M. David Peterson ::
XML & XML Transformations, C#, .NET, and Functional Languages Specialist
|
