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From: A Jensen (no email)
Date: Fri Sep 03 2004 - 18:04:07 EDT
Eric Thoman wrote:
I have a couple of (real world, I think) comments and questions.
>>> snip<<<
Often times, systems depend on systems which depend on systems.
>>> snip<<<
Is the computer smart enough to diagnose one problem before the other?
REPLY
I am increasingly having reservations about adopting Microsoft like
approaches to computerizing
fucntions on board. Don't get me wrong. I stil fel there is a place for
automated systems working in the background to releive the human operator of
tedious, boring and sometimes dangerous tasks.
What concerns me is the manner in which preogrammes approach the task of
doing something.
Quite often I am told it is "windows compliant" and by implication therfore
must be good.
Lets not forget that Windows is often also using very bloated software and
has a lot of overhead. Apparently, no one bothers to write really tight code
anymore.
Program managers seem to think it expedient to use a library of pre-existing
subroutines and just put together a seris of call routines and macros to
accomplish a task.
the justification is cost effectiveness and spped of compilation and so on.
What concerns me is the increase in marine applications that rely on the
ubiqutious Windows driven laptop instead of dedicated software imbeded into
a chip as firmware.
Manufacturers also rely more and more on internet access for help and
software revision updates not to mention almost weekly patches etc.
While this may work fine for land based sitautions where the user is hard
connected to a high speed connection, it may not be as workable for a boat.
Especially if that boat happens to be cruising in remote areas.
Yes it is true that you can equip yourself with a complete library of CD's
but that doesn;t take care of upgrades, patches and fixes that become known
after you depart home port.
Tech support on a Navy vessel in the Indian Ocean might work fine by using
internet access.
They have unlimiteed resoruces and multiple sat link facilities. Not so for
many if not most private trawlers.
This line of thought has led me to re-examine the whole idea of
proprietaryand dedicated firmware versus Windows compatible software running
on a laptop.
Arild
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