[Openmcl-devel] process-run-function and mach ports usage

[Shannon Spires]

On Feb 23, 2011, at 10:56 PM, Ron Garret <ron at flownet.com> wrote:

> The problem is that the market for operating systems is very  
> different than the market for bridges.  Notwithstanding the odd  
> comp.risks horror story, in general when an OS leaks resources  
> people may be inconvenienced, but they don't die.

That's still true in general, but it's rapidly becoming less true. The  
more software controls physical systems, the more likely is death due  
to lousy software. Think about embedded medical devices. Stuxnet. Fly- 
by-wire aircraft.

Now think about the so-called "Smart Grid" being run on Windows boxes.

<<shudder>>

Programming will continue to be fun and cool until software starts  
killing people, and then the freewheeling, wild west days of cowboy  
coding are gonna be over. All commodity code will have to be written  
the way NASA writes code, and thus the fun will end.