minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (11/28/83)
The comment "I'm developing a C compiler for an Air-Force computer and wonder if the world will be destroyed by someone writing if (a = b) instead of if (a == b)" [this is a paraphrase] brings to mind Dan McCracken's comment in the mid-60's regarding the Safeguard project. Again, I paraphrase: "Based on your knowledge of real-time control systems containing hundreds of thousands of lines of code, would you trust one to explode a hydrogen bomb 50 miles above your head?" Now, Dan was referring to assembly code, but the point is still valid. (The Safeguard project would destroy incoming missles by blasting them out of the sky by ground-launched missles. They didn't know about the EMP phenonmenon back then.) Martin Minow decvax!minow