Re: Ariane 5 failure

[ag129@ucs.cam.ac.uk (A. Grant)]

In article <324A7C1C.6718@lmtas.lmco.com> Byron Kauffman <KauffmanBB@lmtas.lmco.com> writes:
>A. Grant wrote:
>> Robin is not a student.  He is a senior lecturer at the Royal
>> Melbourne Institute of Technology, a highly reputable institution.

>Thank you for confirming my long-held theory that those who inhabit the
>ivory towers of engineering/CS academia should spend 2 of every 5 years 
>working at a real job out in the real world. My intent is not to slam 
>professors who are in touch with reality, of course (e.g., Feldman, 
>Dewar, et al), but the idealistic theoretical side often is a far cry 
>from the practical, just-get-it-done world we have to deal with once
>we're out of school.

You're being a bit hard on theoretical computer scientists here.
Just because it's called computer science doesn't mean it has to be
able to instantly make money on real computers.  And the Ariane 5 
failure was due to pragmatism (reusing old stuff to save money)
not idealism (applying theoretical proofs of correctness).

But in any case RMIT is noted for its involvement with industry.
(I used to work for a start-up company out of RMIT premises.)
If PL/I is being pushed by RMIT it's probably because the DP
managers in Collins St. want it.  Australia doesn't have much call
for aerospace systems.