From: Paul@Hovnanian.com   
      
   "Christopher M. Jones" wrote:   
   >   
   > Damon Hill wrote:   
   > > Rocket scientists ARE smarter than we are, yes?  ;)   
   >   
   >  From what I can tell rocketry is roughly comparable to   
   > software engineering in terms of intelligence, educational   
   > background, and systems complexity (indeed, software   
   > development is a large part of modern rocketry).  I would   
   > wager that the group of folks who design and build Boeing's   
   > rockets is not too different from the group of folks who   
   > work on Microsoft's Windows operating system.  Take from   
   > that what you will.   
      
   No. Nowhere near the same level of analysis and testing.  Take it from   
   someone who used to work for Boeing and occasionally got stuck with   
   Windows (Microsoft's products were generally not approved for use in   
   critical business processes at Boeing, let alone avionics), even with   
   the advent of Windows 2000.   
      
   Avionics system engineering generally cannot separate the software   
   engineering task very far from those of systems and hardware   
   engineering. Meanwhile, the desktop software industry frequently   
   separates the software development from the problem domain.   
      
   --   
   Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------   
   All wiyht. Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)