Re: computer language used to program Mars Lander

[Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com>]

On 14 Lip, 13:21, jacob navia <ja...@nospam.com> wrote:

> They do not use even memory allocation. They use a subset of C
>
> I am sure they do not use C++!

Why? I would expect some parts of C++ being used, no matter how much
constrained is the target environment.
In particular, C++ has better and more expressive type system,
destructors that can ensure proper execution of "exit" actions, better
support for encapsulation, etc. All these are real advantages as far
as safe and secure code is concerned and none of these require
additional run-time resources.

For example, would you like to have custom integer types with range
checking in this critical software? (Expected answer on this group is
"yes".) This is trivial in C++ and almost impossible in C. This alone
is already a reason to prefer C++ over C for such systems.

Now, why there is no Ada on Mars is another story - but don't worry
about what Martians will think: they will not see the source code
anyway. ;-)

--
Maciej Sobczak * www.msobczak.com * www.inspirel.com