On: Notes on “A Philosophy of Software Design”

[coldtea]

>When you're working on a system that's supposed to last for decades, you think in a completely different way.

Some of the worst systems I've seen were those designed to "last for decades".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect

[dvfjsdhgfv → coldtea]

I was thinking about the other end of the spectrum like Voyager probes.

[coldtea → dvfjsdhgfv]

That takes a whole other approach yes.

But that's also not the same as "to last decades". A lot of the old space code was used and dismissed after a few years / missions.

The key difference is not "future-proofing" but "proofing" in general: the code had to be absolutely robust.

https://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff

[pc86 → dvfjsdhgfv]

Code written on/for a space probe is certain the 0.01% in terms of safety and robustness required.