View Single Post
  #3  
Old May 19th 05, 06:44 PM
Matthew Russotto
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article >,
Bernd Felsche > wrote:
(Matthew Russotto) writes:
>
>>In article >,
>>Bernd Felsche > wrote:

>
>>>As for computer-controlled steering; as long as Micro$oft Quality
>>>remains acceptable in software, I won't have a bar of it.

>
>>Such embedded systems are a totally different ball game. Microsoft
>>HAS been trying to get into it, with fortunately limited success.

>
>Like BMW's "iDrive"? More accurately called "Nobody Drives".


iDrive is based on Windows CE, right? Yeah.

>Embedded systems *should* spawn from Engineering. Unfortunately,
>many "software engineers" think that they are Engineers.


Some software engineers ARE engineers. Many, unfortunately, are not
yet pretend to be. There are many software-dependent life-critical
systems out there that work well.

>So you get cockups like the ABS/DSC being disable when the driver
>presses the brake pedal (too hard) and it won't reset until you
>close all windows and shut down.


The first part was a deliberate design decision; it was an
attempt to fail safe. Reasonable enough, but the threshold was set
too low. The way this was reset was a horrendous design decision.
Neither has anything to do with the particular problems of software;
ask anyone who has had to reset a Ford fuel pump (which is entirely
electromechanical).
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.
Ads