Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-hermes.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!dms From: dms@mit-hermes.ARPA (David M. Siegel) Newsgroups: net.arch Subject: Re: What I miss in micro-processors (fairly long) Message-ID: <2499@mit-hermes.ARPA> Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 23:56:23 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2499 Posted: Mon Sep 30 23:56:23 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 07:13:46 EDT Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA Lines: 25 From: phil@unisoft.UUCP (phil ronzone) Date: 25 Sep 85 07:37:44 GMT Shucks - but I still CAN'T see how much the poor pilot in an F16 with an Ada programmed fire-control computer is going to be as a Mig-27 bears down on him, and right when he hears the lock-on buzz to fire his own missile -- Ada runtime error 498: subscript i value 23 out of range for array x (20) True, this would be of little use to the pilot. But if his little black box recording the status of the various systems on the aircraft were recovered, the run time checking could reveal useful information for fixing the problem. Another point worth mentioning, when an out-of-bounds array reference is made you can't be sure that your os will respond "bus error". Instead, your program might just give the wrong answer. These kinds of problems can easily go undetected. -Dave -- Arpa: dms@mit-hermes.arpa Usenet: mit-eddie!mit-hermes!dms Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com