Re: [OT] Spirit - Software failure

[Preben Randhol <randhol+valid_for_reply_from_news@pvv.org>]

On 2004-01-27, Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@acm.org> wrote:
> Deleting files isn't defrag. This report describes a plain old memory leak.
>
> Which probably would have been checked for if they had called the
> software managing the flash ram a "memory management system" rather
> than a "file system"; JPL programmers know they need to check for
> memory leaks. But apparently they don't know they need to check for
> full disks?

I just read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50645-2004Jan26.html

and it says:

   To ease the burden on the rover's data collection and storage system,
   engineers plan in the next day or so to start deleting hundreds of
   the unnecessary files, she said. Opportunity's handlers will see to
   it that any similar backlog in Opportunity's memory is also purged.

I don't understand this. Did they think they could take pictures forever
and the 256 Mb wouldn't be used up or there is a memory leake in the
software so that when they now take pictures (perhaps with new
instruments?) there isn't enough room to store the large pictures?


> Hiding dynamic memory management under a file system metaphor is a bad
> idea in so many ways ...

Yes.

Btw does anybody know how the colours on the photos are calibrated? If
one look at the panorama pictures one can see that the colours on the
rover are very strange. Especially the blue colour. Seems to me that the
hue is not matching what one would expect from the photos of the rover
on the nasa site (on earth).

-- 
"Saving keystrokes is the job of the text editor, not the programming
 language."