3 ms·
complete lack of know-how when it comes to software (think, e.g., Toyota with its 80K or however many global variables). They might have more know-how than you
by cperciva 11y ago
complete lack of know-how when it comes to software (think, e.g., Toyota with its 80K or however many global variables).
They might have more know-how than you realize. When you're writing safety-critical software, things like "dynamic memory allocation" and "local variables" become dangerous due to the risk of memory leaks and stack overflows.
- throwaway287391 11y agoYou could be right, but somehow I'm skeptical that's really why they were using thousands of global variables. I'd certainly be interested in hearing any more educated takes on Toyota's use of global variables specifically or the auto industry's capabilities in software more generally; I have no first-hand knowledge and am making a lot of assumptions (hence the throwaway, downvote away ;) based on generalizations I've heard about non-software-focused companies that end up having to write some code for their physical products.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- pacala 11y ago"Local variables" can be allocated to global addresses by the compiler/linker toolchain, barring recursive functions. Runtime code loading may require a bit of extra care, but I wonder if safety-critical software really needs DLLs.