And since we’ve been reminiscing about 80-column card decks, this note makes be
recall: “This page is intentionally left blank.” — Steve M.
On Nov 15, 2019, at 5:03 PM, Eliot Kimber ekimber(_at_)contrext(_dot_)com
<xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com> wrote:
Or the publishing of aircraft flight manuals--the 737 Max debacle shows the
importance of documentation in preventing accidents--in the Boeing case the
needed documentation was intentionally omitted but it could just have easily
been omitted as the result of a publishing error that wasn't caught during
the Q/A process. Even something as simple as in incorrectly fetched value in
a data table could have dire consequences.
In my very early days as a writer at IBM I accidently omitted scores of
messages from the messages manual I produced due to a typo in a conditional
inclusion statement. Nobody in the review chain noticed until the paper
manuals came back from the printers.
Fortunately the device being documented was highly reliable and we later
determined that basically nobody ever looked at the messages manual, because
the device never failed. But it could have been very serious now that I think
about it.
Later I worked on the EMOD aircraft manual authoring and publishing system
for McDonell Douglas (later Boeing) and it became clear very early just how
serious that information was. Certainly everyone on the project took the
safety implications very seriously.
Cheers,
E.
--
Eliot Kimber
http://contrext.com <http://contrext.com/>
On 11/15/19, 3:22 PM, "Michael Kay mike(_at_)saxonica(_dot_)com
<mailto:mike(_at_)saxonica(_dot_)com>"
<xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
<mailto:xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>> wrote:
Are you using XSLT/XPath in a life-critical application such as
controlling a nuclear power plant or controlling an aircraft flight system?
Another observation on this: those are the classic examples of
safety-critical systems that everyone uses. But boring administrative
systems, like one that sends letters to patients telling them when their next
cervical smear test is due, are also safety-critical. Probably more deaths
are caused by failures in that kind of system than by failures in systems
where the consequences of failure are more immediate.
WHO report 2016: "A study of reported errors from five family practices in
a high-income
country found that most reports contained administrative errors and more
than
three-quarters had the potential of serious harm".
So let's change the question: Are you using XSLT/XPath in a life-critical
application such as sending appointment letters to hospital patients?
Michael Kay
Saxonica
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