Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Erann Gat]

In article <OAUkb.12491$pT1.1778 at twister.nyc.rr.com>, Kenny Tilton
<ktilton at nyc.rr.com> wrote:

[Discussing the Arianne failure]

> A small side-note: as I now understand things, the idea was not to abort 
> the mission, but to bring down the system. The thinking was that the 
> error would signify a hardware failure, and with any luck shutting down 
> would mean either loss of the backup system (if that was where the HW 
> fault occurred) or correctly falling back on the still-functioning 
> backup system if the supposed HW fault had been in the primary unit. ie, 
> an HW fault would likely be isolated to one unit.

That's right.  This is why hardware folks spend a lot of time thinking
about common mode failures, and why software folks could learn a thing or
two from the hardware folks in this regard.  

E.