Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] OT: old farts slum_code enforcement
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:21:02
Message-Id: 541749DD.3040102@gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] OT: old farts slum_code enforcement by gottlieb@nyu.edu
1 On 15/09/2014 20:59, gottlieb@×××.edu wrote:
2 > On Mon, Sep 15 2014, Alan McKinnon wrote:
3 >
4 >> My favourite Fortran story:
5 >>
6 >> One of the Mariner spacecraft yonks ago was sent a routine regular
7 >> course correction. It flew off at some wild angle and was never seen
8 >> again, and because the antenna was pointing in the wrong direction comms
9 >> could not be re-established. Oops. Expensive spacecraft down the drain....
10 >>
11 >> The bug was eventually trace to a comma instead of a period in some
12 >> Fortran code (made a huge difference). Note that many code reviews
13 >> missed the bug, and the compiler accepted it as valid syntax
14 >
15 > Perhaps instead of
16 >
17 > Do 15 i=1,10
18 >
19 > a loop from 1 to 10
20 >
21 > we had
22 >
23 > Do 15 i=1.10
24 >
25 > which is the same in fortran as
26 >
27 > do15i = 1.0
28 >
29 > an assignment statement.
30
31 If memory serves if was indeed something like that.
32
33
34 --
35 Alan McKinnon
36 alan.mckinnon@×××××.com