Python for air traffic control?

[Franz GEIGER]

Just an idea:

1) Prototype it with Python
2) Gather experiences
3) Throw it away, you will anyway (see e.g. Brooks, The Mythical Man Month)
2) Write the prod version in Python if the prototype told you that it will
fullfill robustness constraints or use Eiffel for that.

As prototypes are best written in a high productivity language, Python is at
least *my* favorite joice for RAD.

Regards
Franz

"Russ" <18k11tm001 at sneakemail.com> wrote in message
news:bebbba07.0106291642.6c799d15 at posting.google.com...
> I am thinking about using Python for a unique safety-critical
> application in air traffic control. It will monitor a few hundred
> aircraft for conformance to assigned trajectories, and it will
> initiate an automatic alarm (for both controller and pilot) if an
> aircraft deviates from its assigned trajectory and is in danger of a
> collision. (The trajectory and tracking data will come from existing
> C/C++ programs.) The software must be as simple, clean, and robust as
> humanly possible. The default languages here are C/C++, but I am
> toying with the idea of using Python instead. However, I am a bit
> nervous about the lack of type checking and function prototyping,
> among other issues. Is Python up to this task? Thanks for your
> insights.