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Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 20:09:16 EST
From: mel@ultrastar.EE.CORNELL.EDU (Miriam Leeser)
Message-Id: <9311190109.AA24066@ultrastar.EE.CORNELL.EDU>
To: info-hol@cs.uidaho.edu
Subject: Is this a joke?


I got this over the net -- I don't know where it originated

(Most network grime scrubbed)

Forwarded message:

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 02:39:20 -0500
>From: Carl W Hoffman <cwh@world.std.com>
To: Info-Explorer@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Japanese Aeronautical Software Development

This is not a joke.

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Tokyo, November 8th (Kyodo) -- A consortium of major Japanese aircraft parts
manufacturers and software companies announced they had won the contract for
developing the "fly-by-wire" control software for the new generation of
passenger planes to be developed in concert with Boeing.

Mr. Jiro Bagubayashi, Section Manager of the Fatal Software Defects Analysis
Section of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries stated: "Winning this work proves the
maturity of the Japanese software industry.  We plan to leverage the expertise
we gained in developing the control software for the unmanned Osaka tram
system."  When questioned about the recent accident where the tram crashed
through its stopping point and nearly plummeted ten meters onto a road packed
with rush hour traffic below, Mr. Bagubayashi replied, "Actually that bug was
due to our being forced to use unnatural software constructs like the Western
notions of TRUE and FALSE.  We are now developing a new logic more suited to
Japanese culture, where NOT FALSE is still FALSE.  Anyway, that bug only
showed up when another bug that had been cancelling out its effect was fixed.
These things happen."

Queried as to why the cutover from the calendar system used during the reign
of the late Emperor Showa to that of the new Emperor Akihito took up to three
months at some Japanese companies, Mr. Bagubayashi continued, "Don't
underestimate the complexity of that problem.  You have to subtract 25 from
the old year and add 88 or something like that, I forget, but our system
analysts were able to spec it out."

Mr. Taro Kokedarake, Department Manager of the Fuzzy Software Development
Department at Japan Aeronautics Software, explained some of the new technology
to be used.  "Japan is a leader in applications of fuzzy technology.  We have
already proven its value in our vacuum cleaners and washing machines.  We plan
to be the first to apply the technology to aeronautics, where it is perfect
for situations such as determining about where the flaps are positioned,
whether or not the plane is more or less pointing at the runway during
landing, and  whether or not the plane is sort of going in the right
direction."

According to Japanese sources, the new software development plan will also
dramatically reduce the cost of new aircraft by making it possible to
eliminate the cumbersome backup and redundancy systems required by the poor
quality of Western software.

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