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Re: Damage Program for many Batteries

From: Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@u...>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 20:15:33 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Re: Damage Program for many Batteries

ok, this is heading OT at hacker speed; let's see if we can get it back.

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Alan E & Carmel J Brain wrote (but not quite in
this order):
> Charles Choukalos wrote:
> > randomize timer

<snip>

> OK....
> 
> Here's how to do it with a programming language that was purpose-built
> for military simulations (and the real stuff too for that matter).
>
> The language is Ada,

oh, Ada. run! run! a language cooked up by the DoD which is exceeded in
terror-causing ability only by PL/1, a language cooked up by long-time
DoD
competitor IBM.

> Now you can see why Military systems
> b) Are much more reliable than production COTS stuff, even before beta
> testing.

ada was used in the on-board computer on Ariane 501. Ariane 501 was
lost in flight because the on-board computer was unable to correctly
handle a sensor misconfiguration. Ada is not quite as rock-solid as it
sometimes claims to be. it's still better than C, though.

that was my attempt to bring this back on-topic - hey, it had an
exploding
spacecraft in it!

<ka-SNIP!>

> If you've read this far, congratulations!

as gripping as the latest Peter F Hamilton!

> and you can get FREE compilers

those who are into programmatic self-discipline could also look at
Eiffel, 
for which there are also free compilers (www.eiffel.com).

Tom

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