Abigail

Because these days it's not just a phone. It's a hand-held computer in its own right, and thus you might want to program something for it yourself. I happen to like the direction cell "phones" are going, but I know a lot of people don't.

But as I noted in another post, Perl isn't suited to such a constrained memory environment. I'm surprised they considered putting it on there at all.

----
I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
-- Schemer

: () { :|:& };:

Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

Besides, why should I care whether Perl is in my Nokia phone or not? I have a Nokia phone and I can use the phone to call other people, and other people can call me on the phone. It does it work well. Why should it matter to me whether there's Perl under the hood or not?

Boy, that must be an old phone! :)

I, personally, haven't seen a phone release within the last three years that does ONLY calling (in and out). Phones that I've seen are packed with functionality like contact managers, organizers, image, music and movie players and recorders, games and whatever else one could imagine. Modern phones are powerful pieces of equipment and having a proper tool (read: perl) for handling them is a sure plus in my book. :)

Your opinion might differ of course. :)

Leonid Mamtchenkov aka TVSET

But it's the functionality (and its quality) that matters, doesn't? Who cares if the functionality that you wish is driven by Perl or not? As long as your phone can make phonecalls, make coffee, and remove pimples, does it matter whether it's programmed in Perl or Python?

Let's phrase it this way. If you buy a table, do you care about the brand of hammer the carpenter used? Or is your care about what the carpenter produced with the hammer? If I buy a phone, I care whether the programmer did a good job. I don't care at all whether he used Perl, Python or Cobol for the job.

Abigail

And amoung exactly who does Java have a bad reputation? Large corporations? Decision makers? Programmers? The people at Nasa who put it on the Mars rover?

They did what? Well, at least we now know why the other one vanished of the face of the err, planet:

java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException
    at java.io.FileInputStream.readBytes(Native Method)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.read(FileInputStream.java:183)
    at sun.misc.Resource.getBytes(Resource.java:67)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:297)
    at com.ooc.CORBA.Request.marshal(Request.java:432)
    at com.ooc.CORBA.Request.invoke(Request.java:258)
    at gov.nasa.RadarChannel.receiver(Packet.java:716)
    at pod.bay.door.open(HAL.java:939)
[download]

Yeah, I know it's a cheap shot, I should really be posting on slashdot...

Wow, is this post ever going to be off-topic.

However, Java is not on the Mars rover(s). It was used to write the Science Activity Planner software, used at JPL to plan rover activities.

The rovers use VxWorks, a very robust real-time OS. More details about their hardware and software systems can be found here and here.

I don't think anyone in their right mind would deploy Java, Perl, or Python that far from home, at least not for any kind of mission-critical use. All 3 are way too complex to trust as reliable in that kind of environment.


Mike

I don't think anyone in their right mind would deploy Java, Perl, or Python that far from home, at least not for any kind of mission-critical use. All 3 are way too complex to trust as reliable in that kind of environment.

That's hogwash. Dr. Paul Backes, Technical Group Leader at Jet Propulsion Lab:

In 2001 and beyond, scientists will use Java to relay command sequences to a remote rover on Mars, just as schoolchildren and other Internet visitors are doing in the simulation today. But will Java ever be embedded in the actual devices deployed to outer space? "Yes, I can imagine using Java for rovers and spacecraft," says Paul. "I think it is inherently a safer language than C and C++, which is very important for spacecraft."