Missile Software Memory Leak

From: km<i>tchell@rational.com (Kent Mitchell) Subject: Re: Does memory leak? Date: 1995/03/31 distribution: world organization: Rational Software Corporation newsgroups: comp.lang.ada This sparked and interesting memory for me. I was once working with a customer who was producing on-board software for a missile. In my analysis of the code, I pointed out that they had a number of problems with storage leaks. Imagine my surprise when the customers chief software engineer said "Of course it leaks". He went on to point out that they had calculated the amount of memory the application would leak in the total possible flight time for the missile and then doubled that number. They added this much additional memory to the hardware to "support" the leaks. Since the missile will explode when it hits it's target or at the end of it's flight, the ultimate in garbage collection is performed without programmer intervention. -- Kent Mitchell | One possible reason that things aren't Technical Consultant | going according to plan is .... Rational Software Corporation | that there never *was* a plan!

A vintage Usenet post describes a missile whose software deliberately leaks memory. The engineers add enough extra memory to last through the missile’s entire flight, joking that the missile’s explosion performs the ultimate garbage collection without programmer intervention. It is shared as an absurd programming joke about turning a serious bug into a planned feature. EN: A vintage Usenet post describes a missile whose software deliberately leaks memory. The engineers add enough extra memory to last through the missile’s entire flight, joking that the missile’s explosion performs the ultimate garbage collection without programmer intervention. It is shared as an absurd programming joke about turning a serious bug into a planned feature.

• @ithueti / 11114 2023-12-06