Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!ninja!cpe!tif
From: tif@cpe.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Shuttle computer reprogramming
Message-ID: <6400005@cpe>
Date: 30 Sep 88 17:24:00 GMT
References: <6689@nsc.nsc.com>
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #R:nsc.nsc.com:6689:cpe:6400005:000:1116
Nf-From: cpe.UUCP!tif    Sep 30 12:24:00 1988


Written  4:20 pm  Sep 29, 1988 by nsc.UUCP!glennw in cpe:sci.space.shuttle
>The networks explained the problem as being that a certain wind speed and
>direction (determined by historical data) is programmed into the shuttle
>computers and that reprogramming would be difficult and require retesting.
>
>The question I, as a software engineer, have is: why should this require
>reprogramming at all?  Why couldn't the program have been written to
>accept input as to meteorological conditions at launch time?  Seems to me
>that hard-wiring this data into the program isn't particularly good
>programming practice.

If I'm right, there will be several responses saying the same thing...

I interpreted the reports differently than you.  I understood that what
was hard-coded was the "bad weather" limit, beyond which a launch would
not take place.  They felt that the limit was too strict but rather than
change and retest the software, they just made a waiver and proceeded.

Am I talking about the same thing as you?

			Paul Chamberlain
			Computer Product Engineering, Tandy Corp.
			{convex,killer}!ninja!cpe!tif