If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
no thanks - remote controlled passenger planes?
Larry Dighera wrote in
news One presumes there are butt-loads of computer code involved in implementing such automated aircraft operations; what could go wrong? :-( I have programmed as a hobby for at least a couple decades. A quick story. On a small recent project I wrote some code on a microcontroller to drive some full color LED's for an art project. Worked wonderfully. Development continued for some time. Then I made a small change. Instant crash and burn. No lights. It took me days to track down the bug. I ended up having to 'manually' run the code on paper and track what every variable, every memory location, every CPU register was doing at every step. Turned out it was not the recent change I had just made, but a bug that I inadvertently made very early in writing the code. It just coincidentally happened to still work correctly until the later change made it not. Oh, and this code was only 33 lines long!!! The error? I forgot to put in a "#" symbol. The result was the command was accessing the wrong memory address to get some data, but by pure coincidence that wrong address contained the right data, thus it still worked. When I made the later change, it changed the value in that 'wrong' memory address thus exposing the error. It amazes me to no end that people can write software for such critical systems as nuclear power plants, aircraft autopilots, ICBM's, and Mars rovers and NOT have the thing just end up a heaping pile of goo. Well, even as 'just a hobbyist' I do understand how, but it's still amazing. But, sometimes it does still blow up in the end... http://www.around.com/ariane.html Brian -- http://www.earthwaves.org/forum/index.php - Earth Sciences discussion http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Controlled flight into glass | John | Piloting | 39 | January 14th 07 06:17 PM |
4CH Radio Controlled RC Helicopter - $83 | NYPT Man | Rotorcraft | 0 | July 31st 05 04:22 PM |
Radio controlled helicopter | Paul Sengupta | Piloting | 4 | May 28th 04 04:14 AM |
REMOTE CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT | RCPLANE | Home Built | 0 | December 18th 03 06:40 PM |
REMOTE CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT | RCPLANE | General Aviation | 0 | December 18th 03 06:39 PM |