pathfinder – Diary of an Emacs tragic https://emacstragic.net Jason Lewis Tue, 07 Aug 2012 01:32:32 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://emacstragic.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cropped-jason-lewis-profile-picture-square-150x150.jpg pathfinder – Diary of an Emacs tragic https://emacstragic.net 32 32 38469313 Debugging of Pathfinder Rovers https://emacstragic.net/uncategorized/debugging-of-pathfinder-rovers/ https://emacstragic.net/uncategorized/debugging-of-pathfinder-rovers/#respond Tue, 07 Aug 2012 01:32:32 +0000 http://emacstragic.net/?p=290 Jeff Waugh @jdub tweeted an interesting article about how the previous Mars rovers turned out to have a fairly serious software problem, and how the JPL engineers diagnosed and fixed it.
Some of the points I found particularly interesting:

  • JPL use a propriety, off the shelf operating system to run the rovers (VxWorks)
  • having a replica of a live system for debugging is very useful
  • leaving debugging tools in the remote system saved the day
  • Finding a way to reproduce the error is critical
  • Don’t ignore strange behaviour thinking it might just go away

I love reading stories of issues like this and how the engineers fixed them. Well worth reading.

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