Originally Posted by
deSitter
Dozy and syseng68k, I am not trying to be alarmist - but I do find it very telling of the entire world of developing software, that tools like APL, FORTH, and Smalltalk, which are purpose-built for solving specific problems, are universally scorned in favor of bloated "software development universes"
There's your first problem - Smalltalk took a while to catch on in the commercial world, but it has set the stage for languages like Haskell, which are general-purpose, but with very clearly-defined functional properties. They still have to be compiled into machine-readable instructions though...
It may be OK to wade through such dross while sitting in the data center, but pilots with a troubled airplane don't have time to think about such things.
I don't know how many more times we can say this before it sinks in, but:
they don't. Safety-critical real-time software uses a completely different paradigm to any other software development methodology you care to name.