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From: "Alex R. Mosteo" <alejandro@mosteo.invalid>
Subject: Re: How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking werenotturned off?
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:06:44 +0100
Date: 2011-03-18T13:06:44+01:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <ilvhsl$abd$1@news.eternal-september.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 4d81491c$0$43833$c30e37c6@exi-reader.telstra.net

robin wrote:

> Martin Krischik wrote in message ...
>>Am 16.03.2011, 11:41 Uhr, schrieb robin <robin51@dodo.com.au>:
>>
>>> That was the major blunder that they made,
>>> namely, treating a programming error as a hardware error.
>>
>>Let me repeat: There was no programming error.
> 
> Let me repeat:  The major blunder made was in treating
> a programming error as a hardware error.
> The error was in assuming that there was no possibility of a
> programming error, and therefore it must be hardware error.
> This error was made in the Ariadne 4.
> 
> This attitide that "it can't happen" therefore there's no need to test for
> it is responsible for run-time failures from the early days of
> programming.
> 
> Remember Robert's Law: "Even if it can't go wrong, it will".
> 
> In a real-time system, EVERY possibility must be tested for.

IIRC there was the extra factor of limited CPU budget; not checking this 
conversion (that, again, for Ariane IV would mean a hardware error) would be 
even more justified.

> 
>> The software was correct
>>for the Ariane 4.
> 
> No it wasn't.
> It had unchecked overflow.
> 
>> If at all it was a deployment or management error in
>>installing Ariane 4 software on the Ariane 5.
>>
>>> By doing that, they guaranteed failure of the mission.
> 
> Quite so.




  parent reply	other threads:[~2011-03-18 12:06 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 79+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2011-03-14 15:49 How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? Elias Salomão Helou Neto
2011-03-14 16:17 ` KK6GM
2011-03-14 19:25   ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2011-03-14 19:28     ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-14 20:28     ` KK6GM
2011-03-15  4:02       ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2011-03-15  4:53         ` Shark8
2011-03-14 18:29 ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 10:41   ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were notturned off? robin
2011-03-16 15:16     ` Simon Wright
2011-03-17 11:48       ` robin
2011-03-16 16:58     ` Martin Krischik
2011-03-16 23:39       ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking werenotturned off? robin
2011-03-17 18:48         ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-18 12:06         ` Alex R. Mosteo [this message]
2011-03-18 21:15           ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? robin
2011-03-20 10:42             ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-20 17:06         ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking werenotturned off? Martin Krischik
2011-03-20 17:11         ` Martin Krischik
2011-03-20 18:10           ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2011-03-21 13:24         ` Leif Roar Moldskred
2011-03-20 13:07       ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were notturned off? Florian Weimer
2011-03-20 17:00         ` Martin Krischik
2011-03-20 20:17           ` Florian Weimer
2011-03-20 20:37             ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-20 20:14         ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 18:20     ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 18:29       ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-16 18:55         ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 19:40         ` KK6GM
2011-03-16 20:52           ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-16 21:02             ` KK6GM
2011-03-16 21:09             ` Shark8
2011-03-16 21:13               ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-16 21:35                 ` Shark8
2011-03-16 22:27             ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 21:04           ` Shark8
2011-03-16 21:10             ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-16 21:27               ` KK6GM
2011-03-16 21:31               ` Shark8
2011-03-16 22:32               ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-18 21:14           ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? robin
2011-03-16 23:46       ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking werenotturned off? robin
2011-03-17  0:26         ` Simon Wright
2011-03-17 11:01           ` Georg Bauhaus
2011-03-17 11:04           ` robin
2011-03-17 13:36             ` Niklas Holsti
2011-03-18 21:13               ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? robin
2011-03-19 10:12                 ` Niklas Holsti
2011-03-17 22:51         ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking werenotturned off? Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-18 21:13           ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? robin
2011-03-20 10:42             ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-15  6:28 ` Stephen Leake
2011-03-15 17:32   ` Keith Thompson
2011-03-15 17:40     ` KK6GM
2011-03-15 19:44     ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-15 19:12   ` Florian Weimer
2011-03-15 19:45     ` KK6GM
2011-03-15 19:57     ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-20 13:00       ` Florian Weimer
2011-03-20 20:13         ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-15 19:42   ` John B. Matthews
2011-03-17 11:44   ` robin
2011-03-17 18:37     ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-17 23:04       ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were notturned off? robin
2011-03-18 15:55         ` Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-17 21:37     ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-16 10:33 ` robin
2011-03-16 15:08   ` Simon Wright
2011-03-17 12:39     ` robin
2011-03-17 13:41       ` Georg Bauhaus
2011-03-17 23:34         ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were notturned off? robin
2011-03-18 12:57           ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-18 16:49             ` KK6GM
2011-03-18 17:18               ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2011-03-19 17:55                 ` Keith Thompson
2011-03-20 18:39                   ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-17 18:43       ` How would Ariane 5 have behaved if overflow checking were not turned off? Vinzent Hoefler
2011-03-17 20:58       ` Simon Wright
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