3 ms·
As nobody reads TFA these days, I have to supply the money quotes myself. > I mean that the actual telescope, arguably one of humanity’s finest scientific achi
by bhaak 4y ago
As nobody reads TFA these days, I have to supply the money quotes myself.
> I mean that the actual telescope, arguably one of humanity’s finest scientific achievements, is largely controlled by JavaScript files. Oh, and it’s based on a software development kit from 2002.
> According to Nombas’ (now-defunct) website, the latest update to ScriptEase 5.00e was released in January 2003
> next time you’re cursing the modern web for being so slow and wishing that someone would just blast JavaScript into space, you can remember that NASA has, in fact, done that.
- mftb 4y agoI read it, and all that quote illustrates is that the author doesn't know a great deal about NASA's development process. ScriptEase is not large, and purchasing it 17 years ago means that they had plenty of time to fully vet it individually, write their Host Objects and then another 15 years or so to test it. If you're curious about how NASA develops software - https://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff https://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff
- bhaak 4y agoFor a low level view, as how the code actually should look like, I found the JPL C coding guidelines very useful. It had an effect on me on how I wrote C after reading it. Here's a github hosted version https://github.com/stanislaw/awesome-safety-critical/blob/master/Backup/JPL_Coding_Standard_C.pdf https://github.com/stanislaw/awesome-safety-critical/blob/ma...
- prewett 4y ago> 23. Place #else, #elif, and #endif in the same file as the matching #if or #ifdef. Oh my. I bet that one has an interesting history! That thought has never even crossed my mind, and I did some fun stuff like include a header twice with different definitions to get a C++ mixin.
- mftb 4y agoI am interested, ty.