OT (Complexity makes for a) Desperate situation

[Neil Cherry]

Joel Rees wrote:
> [...] 
>>> In fairness, computers are now so complex that it is almost inevitable that 
>>> some unforeseen circumstances will arise.  Not that this has any relevance to 
>>> the problem I've just had, but I don't feel that it is possible, today, for 
>>> any systems designers to be absolutely sure that nothing odd could happen.
>> Umm, not so. I recall my "software engineers" complaining that
>> their software/firmware could not anticipate every possible
>> circumstance. I would point out to them that "Your code is going to
>> do *something* in every circumstance. What it does can either
>> be something you *chose* for it to do, a *considered* decision,
>> or it can be something you simply *let* it do, *without*
>> any consideration. Which do you prefer to have to support?"
>>
>> These days, all the "complex interactions" are pretty much due
>> to intelligent devices with uCs running firmware. If it does
>> something weird, then that's just some firmware writer being
>> in a certain sense "lazy".
> 
> I would say that depends on the definition of lazy. It's kind of like
> professors who stand up in the intro to compilers class and say, "A good
> compiler could completely do away with the need for a program stack." In
> the ideal, yes, but ideal processors have infinite memory and run at
> infinite speed.
> 
> Sure, there are plenty of lazy engineers, programmers, and techs, and
> plenty of impatient project managers, and plenty of sales personnel only
> too happy to promise impossible delivery dates, etc., but there are also
> problems that are difficult to solve, and testing can definitely be part
> of that class of problems, particularly when the machine being built has
> to deal with humans fumbling around.
> 
> I don't think anyone has yet found a solution to the general class of
> NP-complete problems.

Solution found, ignore it. ;-) I sort of like Rush for this one:
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.

Actually in the work I do we deal with access lists. we have to
block some and let other through or we allow some and block the
rest. My programming is typically that way also. Sort of:
if(a) {
   # Good
} else if (!a) {
   # Bad
} else {
   # HUH?!!!
}

Deal with what you know and decide if everything else is
an error. Sometimes there is nothing you can do with the
error. But at least post something, a screen message or
a log entry. Then at least you have the option to fix it
in a later release.

Oh, BTW, my favorite environment involves processors
with RAM up to 256 bytes. I'm going pop one into an
old industrial UPS to bring it up to date.

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry at linuxha.com
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