Poxy old computers (was RE: [extropy-chat] SPACE: Spirit Prob lems)

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Emlyn O'regan <oregan.emlyn at healthsolve.com.au>
wrote:
> > Which runs counter to commercial software
> development.
> > Who's going to QA the beast?  Who's going to
> certify
> > its utility for certain services it's sold to
> perform?
> 
> Read those licenses on your existing shrink wrapped
> software one more
> time... no one is foolish enough, even today, to
> warrant that any software
> sold will *actually work as intended*. Sometimes
> they even deny that there
> is an intention behind the software.

You are correct for most commercial applications.
There are some which are so warranted, though: mainly
things were peoples' lives have a significant chance
of being endangered in case of error, such as vehicle
autopilots, life support systems as seen in hospitals,
power plants, et cetera.

Then again, perhaps there's a reason that those tend
to be the types of software most resistant to feature
creep.