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I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 which were written in 1970's and probably in assembly seemed flawless yet with todays t

by esaym 11y ago

I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 which were written in 1970's and probably in assembly seemed flawless yet with todays tech we can't even do this?

willtim 11y ago
The issue is one of scale. And if by today's tech you mean C++, it also has safety issues that become apparent at scale.
lostgame 11y ago
>> probably in assembly >> wondering why it doesn't work now Assembly is instruction-by-instruction, line-by-line. Not that C++ is by nature an unstable language, but I'm sure the margin of error is higher by nature simply by not using ASM. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. I've often thought it programmers could be less afraid to code in ASM we would see the most incredible things on something like a PS4. Of course, that's impractical as all hell due to millions of lines of code turning into a billion or whatever. I used to use ASM all the time for Sega Genesis/GBA home-brew and what-not. I kind of actually miss it. :3
hackuser 11y ago
> I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 ... seemed flawless Who said they were flawless? Most major new platforms, including many prior fighter planes, had similar teething problems. Novel, huge, highly-complex, mission- (and life- and national-security-) critical systems are going to have a lot of them. Also, modern systems have orders of magnitude more software, due to orders of magnitude more computer capability.
alkonaut 11y ago
> I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 which were written in 1970's and probably in assembly seemed flawless yet with todays tech we can't even do this? Programming languages haven't evolved much since the 70's, yet the number of lines of code we have to write to fly a 5th generation fighter jet has probably followed the same curve as the number of transistors inside it. And scaling a CPU turned out to be easier than scaling a program. Imagine the difference in complexity between the earliest computers controlling car engines, and what the computers inside a new Tesla are doing. The same with jets. Modern jets can barely stay airborne without a lot of computer power.
- esaym 11y ago
  True, but can you even imagine being a software dev in 1970? Where TDD, unit testing, or testing even in general isn't even a thing thought of? It just seems so foreign. Even now, someone in college and spend all of their free time reading blogs and books for best practice development and can generally fit in pretty good with any development group once graduated. I don't think people had those luxuries in the 70's.
  - duncan_bayne 11y ago
    > ... or testing even in general isn't even a thing thought of? That's really, really, REALLY not true. https://medium.com/@verne/margaret-hamilton-the-engineer-who-took-the-apollo-to-the-moon-7d550c73d3fa#.86lu3dxcc https://medium.com/@verne/margaret-hamilton-the-engineer-who... ^^ fairly sure that she was thinking a lot about testing
  - branchan 11y ago
    Uhhh...we landed on the moon in 1969. Do you think there wasn't much testing involved to get us there?

by esaym 11y ago

I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 which were written in 1970's and probably in assembly seemed flawless yet with todays tech we can't even do this?

willtim 11y ago

The issue is one of scale. And if by today's tech you mean C++, it also has safety issues that become apparent at scale.

lostgame 11y ago

>> probably in assembly >> wondering why it doesn't work now Assembly is instruction-by-instruction, line-by-line. Not that C++ is by nature an unstable language, but I'm sure the margin of error is higher by nature simply by not using ASM. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. I've often thought it programmers could be less afraid to code in ASM we would see the most incredible things on something like a PS4. Of course, that's impractical as all hell due to millions of lines of code turning into a billion or whatever. I used to use ASM all the time for Sega Genesis/GBA home-brew and what-not. I kind of actually miss it. :3

hackuser 11y ago

> I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 ... seemed flawless Who said they were flawless? Most major new platforms, including many prior fighter planes, had similar teething problems. Novel, huge, highly-complex, mission- (and life- and national-security-) critical systems are going to have a lot of them. Also, modern systems have orders of magnitude more software, due to orders of magnitude more computer capability.

alkonaut 11y ago

> I don't really understand how the computer systems of the F-15 and F-14 which were written in 1970's and probably in assembly seemed flawless yet with todays tech we can't even do this? Programming languages haven't evolved much since the 70's, yet the number of lines of code we have to write to fly a 5th generation fighter jet has probably followed the same curve as the number of transistors inside it. And scaling a CPU turned out to be easier than scaling a program. Imagine the difference in complexity between the earliest computers controlling car engines, and what the computers inside a new Tesla are doing. The same with jets. Modern jets can barely stay airborne without a lot of computer power.

esaym 11y ago
True, but can you even imagine being a software dev in 1970? Where TDD, unit testing, or testing even in general isn't even a thing thought of? It just seems so foreign. Even now, someone in college and spend all of their free time reading blogs and books for best practice development and can generally fit in pretty good with any development group once graduated. I don't think people had those luxuries in the 70's.
- duncan_bayne 11y ago
  > ... or testing even in general isn't even a thing thought of? That's really, really, REALLY not true. https://medium.com/@verne/margaret-hamilton-the-engineer-who-took-the-apollo-to-the-moon-7d550c73d3fa#.86lu3dxcc https://medium.com/@verne/margaret-hamilton-the-engineer-who... ^^ fairly sure that she was thinking a lot about testing
- branchan 11y ago
  Uhhh...we landed on the moon in 1969. Do you think there wasn't much testing involved to get us there?