in reply to Re: Perl in the Enterprise
in thread Perl in the Enterprise

He's talking about submarine navigation system, not about its safety and control systems. Safety and control system typically aren't even PC based precisely for the reasons you've already presented.

Any PC based programming language is going to have disadvantages, simply because those languages are designed for flexible use, not a specific application.

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Re^3: Perl in the Enterprise
by Anonymous Monk on May 18, 2006 at 17:59 UTC
    Safety and control system typically aren't even PC based precisely for the reasons you've already presented.

    That was true, once; but no more.

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Re^3: Perl in the Enterprise
by Anonymous Monk on May 18, 2006 at 18:07 UTC
    On a submarine, the navigation controls are part of a life-critical control system; they link to the hardware, steer the sub, and control elevation. If they don't work right, fatalities can occur. (eg. The sub loses control, hits a reef, or drifts too low, and is crushed under water pressure) Like you noted, control systems are almost never PC based; they're often implemented in Ada, without an OS, directly on a microcontroller.

    He's talking about replacing submarine navigation code in Ada with code written in Perl. Which is why I called him an idiot; because that's just plain wrong.

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Re^3: Perl in the Enterprise
by apotheon (Deacon) on May 20, 2006 at 07:05 UTC

    Are you saying that Perl is a "PC based" programming language? It's more of a Unix-based language (and Unix definitely did not originate with PCs) that has been ported to just about everything.

    Now, if you're saying that C# isn't the best language to use for something like that because it's a "PC based" language, I agree. Perl may also not be the best language for such purposes, but not for the reason you stated.

    print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
    		 - apotheon
    CopyWrite Chad Perrin

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      I mean "PC" as in the general view of what "a computer" is (i.e. keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drive, motherboard, etc) regardless of the OS, as opposed to, say, a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) which has the single purpose of solving logic and only consists of the processor and some IO cards.

      If all you need to do is take some inputs, do some logic, and set some outputs, its a lot easier and more robust if you use something that only does that.

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