From: Andrew K. Wolven
Subject: Re: Selling lisp to the Next Generation Space Telescope Project
Date:
Message-ID: <3A9F0654.1FC3B304@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'. 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.
>
From the perspective as an educated end-user (as opposed to calling myself
a 'software engineer'), I would say that this mentality about engineering
is fraud.
You sound more like a buzzword repeating day-trader than an artisan who
cares about a job well done.
Engineering is form of art. We only _need_ engineering because of the
fact that people have been faked out by the application of 'good' to the
word 'progress', and it has caused the population to become reliant on a
processed environment.
The indians of the amazon possess technology that you cannot imagine.
Sometimes it makes sense to go with a 'commodity', but a space telescope
is not a 'commodity item'.
Think deeply about the utility of progress for our species or be a banker
and worship my friend Satan.
>
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On Thu, 01 Mar 2001 20:32:52 -0600, "Andrew K. Wolven"
<·······@redfernlane.org> wrote:
> Think deeply about the utility of progress for our species or be a banker
> and worship my friend Satan.
<sigh> I think we need Erik's flamethrower on this thread. :-j
__Jason