5 ms·
But then, how on earth did they manage to get this software certified if it did something as DailyWTF-worthy as using floating point for a clock?
by ssp 16y ago
But then, how on earth did they manage to get this software certified if it did something as DailyWTF-worthy as using floating point for a clock?
- Dove 16y agoYeah. You should see some of the other stuff that makes it into production code. I said there was a process. I didn't say the result was good software. ;)
- fshaun 16y agoCollection of bits are put to truly horrible uses in the name of efficiency.
- tetha 16y agoWell I have to give them that this is kind of a curious bug. I mean, you have to wait over 4 days until it triggers. Probably, this just worked whenever it was booted and tested, and booted and certified, because probably the certification did not involve ignoring the thing for four full days.
- phaedrus 16y agoAccording to a book I read about game testing it's common for commercial games to be run through a test of simply leaving the game on for hours or days to see if there are bugs that only show up in this way.
- gnaffle 16y agoAccording to http://www.cs.unc.edu/~dm/UNC/COMP205/LECTURES/ERROR/lec23/node4.html http://www.cs.unc.edu/~dm/UNC/COMP205/LECTURES/ERROR/lec23/n..., the system stored the time in integers, but it was converted to floating point when doing the conversions. This conversion contained a small error that accumulated over time. Keep in mind that things that seem very WTF to you, might seem more plausible when given more details about the subject.
- regularfry 16y agoIn part because the user manual included instructions to regularly reboot before precision became a problem. The users did not, because they didn't want to risk being in the middle of a reboot when a target went overhead.