From: Andrew K. Wolven
Subject: Re: Selling lisp to the Next Generation Space Telescope Project
Date:
Message-ID: <3A9C556B.1F5BF958@redfernlane.org>
Joe Marshall wrote:
> ·······@stsci.edu (John M. Adams) writes:
>
> > Those currently responsible for software strategy believe that using
> > lisp on this project would be a mistake along the lines of `lisp is
> > not a mainstream technology and therefore there would be maintenance
> > nightmare because it is difficult to hire lisp programmers'.
>
> I have to agree. When manufacturing commodity items like space
> telescopes, it is important for the end user to be able to do simple
> maintenance without having to find an `expert'.
But twelve year olds work for so cheap!
> Given the current
> shortage of lisp programmers, and the abundance of people who have
> `learned Java in 21 days', it seems ridiculous to pay for experienced
> software engineers when there are so many minimum wage Java drones
> available. This is especially true in cases such as this where the
> proper functioning of the software is unimportant (pratically
> irrelevant. After all, the photons are going to go into the telescope
> regardless of whether the software is operating). Of course, there
> may be a bit more downtime, but given that an experienced software
> engineer can cost upwards of $100 per hour, a few days of downtime
> every month is a minor inconvenience.
>
> It is obviously quite risky to use any `non-mainstream' technology on
> a project like this. I'd stick to Estes engines for the launch
> vehicle, use Loran for navigation, buy the mirror from Edmund
> Scientific, and script up the code in Visual Basic. Such a system
> would be trivial to maintain because of the rigid adherence to
> `mainstream' technology. The bulk of the technology would be
> accessible to many with a high-school diploma.
>
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