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Re:Telescope That ‘Ate Astronomy’ Is on Track to Surpass Hubble by gfody on Monday November 21, 2016 @09:46PM (#13011215)
Seriously though, considering how deeply every other aspect of this project was deliberated (presumably, given the cost involved) - how they could possibly end up going with Javascript is bizarre. You'd think there would be a preference for arbitrary precision and against undefined behavior.
Re:Telescope That ‘Ate Astronomy’ Is on Track to Surpass Hubble by writeslowly on Monday November 21, 2016 @10:44PM (#13011451)
I can't find the evaluation paper they cited in the second linked paper, but it looks like it's using Javascript because they wanted a COTS script engine (as opposed to running compiled code) that was compatible with VxWorks, and the particular Javascript engine they selected (ScriptEase) was presumably the best option they found back in 2003. I'm not really sure what all options they would have had in 2003 though.
Re:Telescope That ‘Ate Astronomy’ Is on Track to Surpass Hubble by jdale27 on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @03:05AM (#13012478)
They should have hired Erann Gat to do it in Lisp.