5 ms·
The final paragraph is brilliant: > If the rules seem Draconian at first, bear in mind that they are meant to make it possible to check code where very lit
by throwaway2037 2y ago
The final paragraph is brilliant:
> If the rules seem Draconian at first, bear in mind that they are meant to make it possible to check code where very literally your life may depend on its correctness: code that is used to control the airplane that you fly on, the nuclear power plant a few miles from where you live, or the spacecraft that carries astronauts into orbit. The rules act like the seat-belt in your car: initially they are perhaps a little uncomfortable, but after a while their use becomes second-nature and not using them becomes unimaginable.
- NetOpWibby 2y agoYeah I think I’ll stick to building websites and web apps.
- callc 2y agoYou never know, your website may just be mission critical, like if there’s some code on the ISS running: while true; do wget $NetOpWibby_website || sudo shutdown; done
- FpUser 2y agoSure, they have to worry that some imbecile makes mission critical code depend on some dating website.
- yellowapple 2y agoSomeday scientists are going to want to study human reproduction in microgravity in order to test the feasibility of space colonization, and "some dating website" will indeed be something on which mission critical code depends.
- cess11 2y agoWhy would colonial powers let subjects control their own reproduction?
- defrost 2y agoTypically when an independant judiciary gets its nose rubbed so deep in evidence they have to rule against it.
- cess11 2y agoCan you give five examples?
- defrost 2y agoYou can't find examples of countries ending miscegenation laws and forced abortion eugenic policies after they became publically embarrassing through lawsuits? Why five?
- yellowapple 2y agoI can give at least two: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perez_v._Sharp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perez_v._Sharp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia
- defrost 2y agoIndeed .. and they're both US examples. In my initial comment I was thinking of four main western countries (there are others), each with multiple court cases that hammered home the core human rights violations inherent in anti-miscegenation laws and forced, often deceptive, abortion policies. Had the GP commenter here simply asked for an example or an expansion I'd have provided that .. but the "five examples" demand was just .. odd. They've wandered off with no reply so I suspect that might have been the limit of their rhetoric .. such as it was.
- yellowapple 2y ago
- pjmlp 2y agoWhere I stand, it is quite common to have Websites and apps do security assessments with penttesting and code checking, dependencies are validated and may be refused based on security clearance. Software is critical for many business, even if no-one dies, millions may be lost, and drive the company into insolvency.
- pests 2y agoIt’s interesting how the seat belt comment sets the time this was written. Seat belts have been required for basically my entire life and I, nor anyone else I know, think twice about them. But here it’s being used as a familiar pain point the author assumes everyone deals with.
- connicpu 2y agoI'm reminded of a clip that went viral a couple years ago with footage from the 80s containing people describing the recent expansion of DUI laws as "Communist"[1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQ
- danielscrubs 2y agoFun fact, Volvo created and patented the three point safety belt in use today after years of R&D and testing expenses, but immediately made it free for all other car makers. I wonder if companies would do that today without heavy incentives. I can’t imagine for example a VC backed company doing that. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentdykes/2025/01/28/the-data-storytelling-triathlon-three-disciplines-one-goal/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentdykes/2025/01/28/the-data-...?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- edanm 2y agoI mean, a modern example might be the various companies open-sourcing LLMs (e.g. Meta). I don't think "public-mindedness" is exactly the right explanation, it's probably driven by strategic thinking... but then, maybe the same was true of Volvo.
- mingusrude 2y agoIn the same vein, at Volvo's factory outside of Gothenburg they have the obligatory museum. It's just that they don't showcase old, famous models. The museum is entirely built around car safety and how Volvo has worked with it. It is interesting with a company that has been so dedicated to their core values for such a long time.
- atoav 2y agoAs an electronics guy I have to say that even if you code perfectly, your system can still fuck up, because your assumption is wrong. E.g. I had a project physically tear itself apart, because apparently when the USB-cable was disconnected in just the right moment the servo would interpret the cut off PWM pulse as a position clue, one that just by code alone should be unreachable. What we learn from that is that even well written code cannot guarantee everything and you need physical fallbacks like end-switches that remove power from the servos if activated (and whoever thought pulse length is a reliable way to set servos is probably wrong).
- arijo 2y agoWouldn’t a digital servo mitigate the problem?
- atoav 2y agoNo, they were digital servos. As far as I know the only difference between analog and digital servos is in how they process the received signal, the signals themselves are very much the same. But if by digital you meant some hypothetical servo that needs to receive its data as bytes with a checksum — yeah that would work, as long as the thing can do a graceful shutdown on powerloss. But I am not aware of such servos (although I wouldn't be surprised if they existed, on that project I was just a programmer).
- arijo 2y agoI realize now my comment was dumb. Thanks for the correction.
- colechristensen 2y agoEspecially when writing software for hardware in space, managing "unreachable" code paths is tested and considered, because with cosmic rays and other sorts of radiation, no code path is actually unreachable.
- 2y ago
- moffkalast 2y ago1. Be polite 2. Be efficient 3. Have a plan for every edge case you meet
- MaxBarraclough 2y agoThat almost works as a manifesto for Ada SPARK, just replace polite with formal.
- moffkalast 2y agoThe Nvidia firmware language? I think that one only has two steps: 1. The more you buy the more you save 2. Black leather jacket