On 11/27/2013 03:18 PM, Randall Morgan wrote: > When I think of mission critical, I think of things that could cost > someone's life if failure occurred. Things like, aircraft guidance systems, > embedded medical devices, automotive steering and breaking systems, rail > switching systems, etc.
Those are actually a separate class, usually called "life-critical". A lot of proprietary software packages have EULAs that actually forbid their use in such applications. And while I don't know about Gambas, I've been aware of a frightening number of medical software packages with at least a VB interface, including my late partner's ICD's control software, complete with VBRUN600.dll (pretty sure the software in the ICD itself wasn't VB, but in non-implanted devices it might be -- and in any case, I'm betting it wasn't ADA). > You can argue that almost any software is mission > critical for it's mission. Nope, "mission-critical software" is a term of art that means "software critical to the operation of a business". For Amazon, a web server is mission-critical, as is whatever they use to handle fulfillment so quickly. For banks, there's the core system, teller interface and whatever other ancillary systems without which they can't open for business, written in languages that range from RPG to Javascript. For a recording studio, it's something like Protools or Ardour, especially once enough projects are in a given tool's format that switching would require days or weeks of work. And for Benoit's company, it's the software he wrote in Gambas. I once worked for a company whose most mission-critical software was a Lotus spreadsheet macro that they had overgrown, causing the data to overwrite the "code". Yes, really. They were dead in the water without it, sent everyone home, couldn't so much as access their customer list or open orders. I fixed it for them in a few days, converted it to a DBMS with a nice Turbo Pascal client, but it just goes to show that mission-critical software depends on what the business needs, not what's stable, secure or even sane. (No Z80 machines in my past except a Colecovision, but I had at least 5 6502-based ones... still really enjoy that flavor of assembly language, especially with modern macro assemblers.) Rob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349351&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Gambas-user mailing list Gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gambas-user
