>They would withstand a lot >more "punishment" than advertised. But in the software industry, it >is customary to have "if <condition> then" statements in fairly >critical parts of the program and the <condition> can be quite >complex and convoluted logic. And, that's the only check.
If, then, else logic is for chumps. Anyone who codes that way is an idiot. (Microsoft tends to code that way. I don't hate them because they are Microsoft. I hate them because they write code like idiots.) If one goes to college to learn about programming they teach you about the mathematics behind good algorithms: lexical scanning, parsing, state diagrams, etc. etc. Such methods can produce solid code that tends not to break easily and is more likely to do something sensible even in unexpected conditions. Last week I was helping a client with a very fragile system and cursing if-then-else logic. Someone challenged me about how I could say that about code I had not even looked at. So I pulled up some of the underlying code. There they could see line after line of if-then-else logic. Any deviation from the exact syntax and conditions in the code and the system breaks. A stupid way to code. Note that fighter planes are not directly flyable by human pilots. The controls go to a computer and the computer runs the control surfaces. Different programs can be loaded to give the airplane different characteristics. This has been going on for 20 years now. Don't tell me that controlling an automobile is harder than this. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
