From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_20 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 15 Oct 92 15:35:19 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!fcom.cc.utah.edu!val@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Val Kartchner) Subject: What is "real-time"? Message-ID: <1992Oct15.153519.23717@fcom.cc.utah.edu> List-Id: Since this subthread doesn't seem to be going away, I decided to at least rename the subthread from "Ada's (In)visibility in the engineering community." tlai@cs.toronto.edu (Tony Wen Hsun Lai) writes: : If you want to see the conventional meaning of "real-time" in computer : science, try looking at some books on operating systems or comparative : programming languages. I've given definitions of "real-time" from three different English language dictionaries. Everyone seems to say that these are insufficient in a computer science context. However, no one has actually posted an alternate third-party definition of "real-time". I'll agree to use a formal definition as given by the FAQ of the comp.realtime group (sight unseen). : Consider the following example. Suppose you are writing software for a : missile system. Suppose you have a timing constraint where you must use : a backup sensor if the main sensor does not respond every 25 msec. You : cannot express such a constraint in C without using an OS call or an : external routine. The C language has no real-time facilities per se. Given the real-time definitions given so-far, C has as much (if not more) of a claim to real-time as Ada. Until we finish defining the catagory, we cannot say what does and doesn't fit in a given catagory. However, an lengthy (and well done) editorial on the subject is given in the article (that started the thread) "Ada and realtime". Until we get a mutually agreeable third-party source (not biased toward Ada nor C/C++), properly cited for reference purposes (and fairness to the authors), then let's just "Stop the petty bickering!"* -------- * - Deanna Troi, "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Haven". -- |===== The previous was my opinion -- val@csulx.weber.edu =====///============| | "AMIGA: The computer for the creative mind." (tm) Commodore /// Weber State | | "Macintosh: The computer for the rest of us."(tm) Apple \\\/// University | |============== "I think, therefore I AMiga." =============\///=== Ogden, UT =|