Memory-Lane Monday: Harder_than_it_looks, apparently

It’s a long time ago, and this pilot fish is writing real-time code for an aerospace company. “On one project, I developed some software to test a radar interface at a remote location,” says fish. “The test software was installed on a computer and the box was shipped to the remote site.”

Next day, fish gets a call from an engineer at the test site: The test software is crashing as soon as it starts.

Still on the phone, fish opens a listing of the latest version of the source code, and his heart sinks. Right in front of him is a typo that’s guaranteed to cause a fatal error on startup.

Fortunately, fish installed the source code and a compiler on the test computer. He can’t directly edit the code, but all he has to do is walk the engineer though the process over the phone — and all the engineer will have to do is type a few commands that will edit the file and build the software.

To read this article in full, please click here