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From: "Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ariane 5 failure
Date: 1996/10/03
Message-ID: <96100316162653@psavax.pwfl.com>#1/1
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sender: Ada programming language <INFO-ADA@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU>
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Date: 1996-10-03T00:00:00+00:00
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Ken Garlington <garlingtonke@LMTAS.LMCO.COM> writes:
>> Brain's law:
>> "Software Bugs and Hardware Faults are no excuse for the Program not to
>> work".
>
>Too bad that law can't be enforced :)
>
    Yup! Hardware faults - such as a CPU out to lunch - can pretty
    much be impossible to fix with the software that's running on it.
    As for software faults, isn't it a little like being in the
    "Physcian, heel thyself!" mode? I am insane - let me diagnose and
    cure my own insanity...But being insane, can I know that my
    diagnosis and/or cure isn't also insane? A bit of a paradox, no?

    Yes, yes, yes. Exception handlers and so on can do a remarkable
    job of catching problems and fixing them. But out of the set of
    all possible software bugs, there is a non-empty set containing
    software bugs which mean your program has gone insane.

    You can only accommodate the bugs and/or faults which you can
    think of. What about the few hundred bugs/faults you *didn't*
    think of? Bet your donkey that they're going to happen someday,
    somewhere and the only way you're going to learn about them is by
    having them rear their ugly heads. Ask the engineers who designed
    The Tacoma Bridge or the o-rings on the space shuttle about it.

    MDC

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer    ATT:        561.796.8997
M/S 731-96                                      Technet:    796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP                           Fax:        561.796.4669
P.O. Box 109600                                 Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
West Palm Beach, FL 33410-9600                  Internet:   CONDIC@FLINET.COM
===============================================================================
    Glendower: "I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
    Hotspur: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when
    you do call for them?"

        -- Shakespeare, "Henry IV"
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