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From: Hyman Rosen <hymie@prolifics.com>
Subject: Re: JOB:Sr. SW Engineers Wanted-Fortune 500 Co
Date: 2000/01/31
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Hyman Rosen <hymie@prolifics.com> writes:
> Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> writes:
> >    3. I think I speak for most (if not everyone) here when I say that I
> > find it appalling that anyone would develop a product like a pacemaker,
> > on which the life of a human being depends on its continuous reliable
> > operation, in a language known to be as error-prone as C. This is not an
> > opportunity for me to be "improving other's lives". It's an opportunity
> > for me to screw up and *take* someone's life. No thanks.
> 
> Good thing the Ariane 5 didn't land on anyone's house.

OK, I'm being a smartass, but I am making a valid point.
Having its software written in Ada was not enough to keep
the Ariane 5 from going off-course and being blown up. In
the same way, having the software of a pacemaker written
in C is not enough to force it to blow up. I would assume
that pacemaker software undergoes thorough critical-systems
development and testing regardless of what language it's
written in.