On: Margaret Hamilton has died

[dadrian]

Hamilton invented the idea of error handling in software, and that error handling in the Apollo computer is why Buzz Aldrin was able to handle the error 1201/1202 in the minutes before the Eagle landed on the moon, instead of having to abort the mission.

[codewritinfool → dadrian]

Certainly that could be described as "error handling", but I would describe what saved the landing as priority scheduling combined with restart protection.

[Andrex → dadrian]

I wonder if that was just an outgrowth of NASA's "plan for failure" ethos.

But, I also wonder if that ethos was apart of early NASA before they had failures to learn from... Hmm...

[xyzzyz → dadrian]

You are misremembering something you read. Software written in 1950s already had error handling in it.

[tonymet → dadrian]

The mythology is getting out of hand guys

[tene80i → peterfirefly]

Assume it’s not obvious and offer an interesting contribution, such as an alternative.