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I think you'd be surprised at how many rely on Autocad to do their structural calculations for them.
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I knew* one Mobile company who thought it would be a good idea to use Lotus Notes to manage their Telecom infrastructure.
*Deliberately using past tense here...
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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We had Lotus Notes here... I've never been so grateful to migrate to gmail.
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I had similar experience early in my career and now have another.
I worked on a banking application where I needed to calculate APR (annual percentage rate). I asked several mortgage bankers how they do the calculation, not a one knew. Each stated the rate was on the docs they received from the intake clerk. I asked the clerk, she said she used her mortgage calculator, a hand held device.
Currently, I am investigating solar panels for my home. I have 4 companies responding each with proposing different configurations despite using the same utilization rates published by my electric provider.
Accuracy, it appears, is in the math of the beholder.
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Software failure isn't caused by the tools or paradigms used to develop it - it's cased the the programmers not doing it right.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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#realJSOP wrote: it's caused by the the programmers not doing it right.
exactly.
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I didn't intend to imply otherwise, despite the overarching topic. I switched gears.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: I'm glad we don't build bridges and skyscrapers.
We've been building physical structures for thousands of years, and writing software for less than 80. Architecture and civil engineering are obviously more mature disciplines than software engineering. Assuming civilization survives, I am certain that our software development efforts will be viewed by future engineers in the same manner that the builders of mud huts are viewed by modern civil engineers.
(But we do build some very impressive mud huts!  )
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Software techniques will undoubtedly improve, but there are things from 45 years ago that I don't find primitive. I think software will always be difficult because, unlike engineers, we continually evolve existing products and, unlike mechanics, we repair them while they are up and running.
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I think you are giving too much credit with the "mud". Mud + straw bricks will last a very long time!
More like straw huts with a few sticks.
This is making me think of software before memory protection.
I imagine a village with thatched roofs side by side by side.
Each house is an app. The thatched roofs are the ram for that app.
The village is the whole machine.
A fire in one house would rapidly jump roofs and take out the entire village.
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englebart wrote: Mud + straw bricks will last a very long time!
Yes, in the right climate. It is not well suited to climates with heavy rains.
This is beside the point. No modern architect would seriously consider using mud (or mud + straw) for a building, and likewise no future software engineer would think of using the techniques (or lack of them  ) used in most current software.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Clay is actually a very good building material and it's used occasionally to construct ecological buildings. See for example Clay Houses - Resilient Fireproof Unique and Attractive[^]
That said, it's advantages are so impressive that it's hard to understand why it's not used more widely.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Do you mean raw clay, or baked clay? Raw clay tends to go soggy when wet...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Not baked (as in bricks).
When building a structure, the clay needs to be wet so it merges tightly with the rest of the material and pores get closed. It needs to dry for quite some time, so you might run into trouble building large structures unless you can be very sure to have a long period of dry weather.
I know it works pretty well because my brother used clay (pellets) and straw to replace the walls in his studwork house. No problems with soaking at all.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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I sit corrected. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Don't worry. I'm not an expert, but I guess that our ancestors took ages to learn why some 'mud' huts lasted forever while others melted away in the very first rain storm. 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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But we do build software that keeps aircraft in the sky (that's a system failure, arguably, but involves the software), keeps nuclear reactors from melting down, and calculates dosages for medical devices...
I've developed software that is currently flying on passenger aircraft and I can tell you with certainty that the practices and processes used for those lines of code were vastly different than what's used for most software - the NASA Software Engineering Handbook is a pretty good example of this.
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
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Don't even get me started on the dosages one. A multithreading issue killed 3 people (as i recall) connected to machines delivering chemo treatments.
Real programmers use butterflies
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And we do build mars orbiter software[^] that uses imperial units 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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32768 m/s should be fast enough for anybody! 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Air traffic control, aircraft avionics
Medical equipment
Law enforcement communications
Defense electronics and C3I
Manufacturing controls, especially for food and medication
...
All of these applications and many more have profound human health and safety implications.
We build much more than bridges and skyscrapers.
Software Zen: delete this;
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fair point. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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I agree.
And have done since the The Beginning (Turbo Pascal 5.5 and Turbo C++ 1.0).
No language should be purely OO, multi-paradigm (ptui) is the only true path.
Use OO when it makes sense, but not wen it doesn't.
You're not alone out here.
Requisite link:
Stevey's Blog Rants: Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns[^]
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