5 ms·

Any _robust_ C program contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Erlang... http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?Greenspuns

by 1gor 14y ago

Any _robust_ C program contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Erlang... http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GreenspunsTenthRuleOfProgramming http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GreenspunsTenthRuleOfProgramming

gruseom 14y ago
But in this case that's almost completely wrong. For example, "bug-ridden"? Outfits like NASA use classical techniques (code inspection etc.) to ensure that their software has exceedingly low error rates. This has been well studied. Such an approach works, it's just too expensive for most commercial projects. As for "slow", how likely is that? On another note, it's pretty cool that the first three names credited in the JPL coding standard document (which is linked to at the bottom of the OP and is surprisingly well written) are Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Doug McIlroy.
- makmanalp 14y ago
  > As for "slow", how likely is that? Have you seen the rover move? :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484R2TQGLAQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484R2TQGLAQ Jokes aside, there isn't much of a speed requirement here, really. It all runs fine on a radiation-hardened 200mhz processor. Nothing on mars is running away.
- GuiA 14y ago
  >But in this case that's almost completely wrong. On the second line of linked article: "This is a humorous observation" (emphasis mine :) )
  - gruseom 14y ago
    Humor doesn't make it applicable. Greenspun's line had a specific meaning. It doesn't stick to this surface.
- 4ad 14y ago
  > On another note, it's pretty cool that the first three names credited in the JPL coding standard document are Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Doug McIlroy. It's not surprising at all. It's the work of Gerard Holzmann[1], who worked at Bell Labs at the Computing Sciences Research Center with all the other Unix folks where he developed the Spin[2] model checker. (As a sidenote, Spin was used to check the sanity of the Plan 9 kernel). [1] http://spinroot.com/gerard/ http://spinroot.com/gerard/ [2] http://spinroot.com/spin/whatispin.html http://spinroot.com/spin/whatispin.html

by 1gor 14y ago

gruseom 14y ago

But in this case that's almost completely wrong. For example, "bug-ridden"? Outfits like NASA use classical techniques (code inspection etc.) to ensure that their software has exceedingly low error rates. This has been well studied. Such an approach works, it's just too expensive for most commercial projects. As for "slow", how likely is that? On another note, it's pretty cool that the first three names credited in the JPL coding standard document (which is linked to at the bottom of the OP and is surprisingly well written) are Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Doug McIlroy.

makmanalp 14y ago
> As for "slow", how likely is that? Have you seen the rover move? :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484R2TQGLAQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484R2TQGLAQ Jokes aside, there isn't much of a speed requirement here, really. It all runs fine on a radiation-hardened 200mhz processor. Nothing on mars is running away.
GuiA 14y ago
>But in this case that's almost completely wrong. On the second line of linked article: "This is a humorous observation" (emphasis mine :) )
- gruseom 14y ago
  Humor doesn't make it applicable. Greenspun's line had a specific meaning. It doesn't stick to this surface.
4ad 14y ago
> On another note, it's pretty cool that the first three names credited in the JPL coding standard document are Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Doug McIlroy. It's not surprising at all. It's the work of Gerard Holzmann[1], who worked at Bell Labs at the Computing Sciences Research Center with all the other Unix folks where he developed the Spin[2] model checker. (As a sidenote, Spin was used to check the sanity of the Plan 9 kernel). [1] http://spinroot.com/gerard/ http://spinroot.com/gerard/ [2] http://spinroot.com/spin/whatispin.html http://spinroot.com/spin/whatispin.html