@thomasfuchs "Houston, we, uh, we have a problem. The displays are all showing [Object object] again."

@thomasfuchs YIKES

I've built embedded apps that run 24/7 on Chromium and would say it works great 95% of the time. And the 5% it doesn't you will have no chance to figure out where in the 35 MILLION LINES OF EXTRA CODE YOU DIDN"T NEED is the problem.

@thomasfuchs as long as the code has been personally checked by Elon we are good.

@thomasfuchs “TypeError: Cannot read property of undefined”

@thomasfuchs

@thomasfuchs I’ve been telling people for years, the screens in our Star Trek future are probably all browsers running some transpiled JS

@thomasfuchs This thread is HILARIOUS. And, of course, frightening.

@thomasfuchs Echos of the Oceangate submarine using a Logitech gamepad from a 2010 to steer and some lights purchased from camping world.

@thomasfuchs
Nothing like having Just In Time in between a human and their life support 👍🏻

@thomasfuchs And the JWST runs a 20-year-old flavor of JS. Web tech is everywhere.

@thomasfuchs that's common knowledge. We've known that since the first crewed mission, and there have been many successful crew missions since then. Kudos to the team for making that happen with chromium and web technologies.

@thomasfuchs no
No
No
Javascript??? Wtf

@thomasfuchs The first time I saw the inside of those capsules and the giant screens and lack of buttons, I thought, "gee, I hope those screens aren't a single point of failure without redundancy."

@thomasfuchs "Ground control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead. There's something wrong."

@thomasfuchs

@thomasfuchs 👀👀👀👀

@thomasfuchs Back in 2015, talking about NASA using Node in their new spacesuit designs, @seldo said “Someone is going to die in space because undefined is not a function” and it has stuck with me ever since 😂

There’s people unironically replying that this is somehow a good thing and I just can’t

@thomasfuchs source, please! I would love to read more on this. It's giving off Titan submarine vibes.

@thomasfuchs

Margaret Hamilton is disappointed.

@thomasfuchs I had to look this up, too (to see if this was true) & there is manual backup with physical buttons just in case the touch display on the #SpaceX rocket 🚀 fails.

👉🏾 https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/06/06/2023249/how-spacex-uses-linux-chromium-c-and-open-source-libraries

@thomasfuchs the only way we get rid of JavaScript as a species is to launch it into space.

@thomasfuchs @runes Jeeeeeeesus.

@thomasfuchs slightly off topic, but what are Tesla's main applications based on? Since the risk being fragged by Musk's N1 is probably smaller for me compared to all his killer cars let loose.

@thomasfuchs whaaaat?!

@thomasfuchs

Yet another opportunity to point to one of my favourite-ever articles:

https://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff

@thomasfuchs wait so Melon Husk is a real life version of Mr. Burns?

@thomasfuchs (this is fine.gif)

@thomasfuchs That's up there with a Logitech gamepad controlling a submarine.

@thomasfuchs We’re all doomed.

@thomasfuchs @freeformz JFC.

@thomasfuchs @freeformz Is it running on Windows ME? Because that would really take the cake.

@thomasfuchs Not a surprise - their likely moon landing simulation software? Lunar Lander. Arcade console. 😁

@thomasfuchs If it was TypeScript transpiled into JavaScript, it shouldn't be a problem.

@thomasfuchs not sure what js they're using. Like react would be scary. And that hand compiled chrome scares me. But html is the most rock solid ui platform.

@thomasfuchs Ok that's kind of scary.

@thomasfuchs

JS in life critical applications, especially aerospace, is beyond scary, it's:

"b" + "a" + +"a" + "a" + "s";

@thomasfuchs I work with that kind of stack, and this terrified me

@thomasfuchs Years ago was talking shop with a programmer who was strongly pro-Javascript, a big fan of Node.js and Atom and the like, and then insisted I was obsolete because I don't code in Javascript.

I retorted something to the effect of "When you can go to space with just Javascript, get back to me."

I guess I'm officially obsolete now.

@thomasfuchs pilots are forced to watch ads

@thomasfuchs Source? I'm horrified.

@thomasfuchs I remember reading that Tesla's internal software (on the car) was held together with shell scripts and that killed any dream of owning one

@thomasfuchs this CANNOT be true

@thomasfuchs
An unpredictable language on an incomprehensible platform doesn’t seem like a good idea for mission critical use.

What do other projects use?

@thomasfuchs "I think it's suggesting my grandmother knows how much fuel is left. I don't know why it capitalised the last letter of 'Nan' though."

@thomasfuchs Javascript/Truescript is the fastest spreading virus on this planet.

@thomasfuchs are they somehow exempt from DO-178C? How?! Oh, it's probably a corrupted state issue...

@thomasfuchs you’re making a big deal out of this, I’m sure the entire source code has been printed out and reviewed by Elon himself

@thomasfuchs @jwz *crosses out "tourist trip to the moon" from the bucket list*

@thomasfuchs honestly I don't see anything wrong with that. JavaScript is used everywhere and there are far worse choices for building a desktop app.

@thomasfuchs I'm okay with this as long as only billionaires ride in the thing.

@thomasfuchs that's how I'd do it if I were making a film about an imaginary space ship on an imaginary mission

@thomasfuchs many things run on js and the world hasn't ended yet... with that said it does make me uncomfortable.

@thomasfuchs WTAF how did they ever get a flight certification for that??!?

@thomasfuchs the UI in the astronauts' capsule (control for the docking maneuver, etc) does so, too.

@thomasfuchs ship the UI stockton rush would be proud of

@thomasfuchs So if we plug in a keyboard and hit Ctrl+W...

@thomasfuchs as someone who runs #Javascript on #MSDOS that is no surprise 🤣
That thing is everywhere 😝

@thomasfuchs what would be a better option in your opinion?

@thomasfuchs I agree that there are technologies which are prone for instability, but you can even create memory leaks in Rust even though it has great memory management or a Null pointer exception in Kotlin even though it has null-safety.
On the other hand, there are strict JS analysis tools, which, combined with good testing, can lead to stable applications.

@thomasfuchs web components

@thomasfuchs "3 Billion – Sorry, 2,999,999,999 – Devices Run JavaScript"

@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io as someone who used to write safety critical real time software for a living: Jesus fucking Christ.

@thomasfuchs No! Surely not!

@thomasfuchs
WHAT?!

@thomasfuchs But are they piloting with a Logitech controller?

@thomasfuchs @Gerhardf The chief genius engineer made them do it, I’m sure. The crew should count themselves lucky all the buttons don’t have “X” written on them.

@thomasfuchs "Move fast and break things", amirite :neocat_cool_fingerguns:​

(Naturally, I'm being sarcastic.)

@thomasfuchs
Is there a source available for this?

@thomasfuchs OH FUCK ME

@thomasfuchs If you use untyped languages you can't risk using the wrong type by mistake! We all learnt this from Ariane 5.

@thomasfuchs just out of interest, does anyone have some info on how NASA or SpaceX competitors write their spaceship software?

@thomasfuchs I mean… has Chromium ever once failed to load a locally hosted web UI? And if somehow it did fail, you could just… hit refresh? As thoroughly tried-and-tested tech goes, you could do a hell of a lot worse. Just saying 🤷‍♂️

@thomasfuchs WHAT

@thomasfuchs

@thomasfuchs Cool. Who did the safety qualification?

@thomasfuchs oh shit …. I mean I love JS but people like me shouldn’t be writing mission critical systems that lives depend on 😂😂

@thomasfuchs

@thomasfuchs So Elon redefined the term "rocket science"...

Well, compared to the computer power of the lunar lander module back in 1969 this his high tech. But compared to what would be possible this is terrifying.

@thomasfuchs omfg why why WHY???

@thomasfuchs Didn‘t Armstrong or someone from that era already comment that they were sitting on a huge explosive device which was built bit for bit by the lowest bidder? 😅

@thomasfuchs
Man, now all the JavaScript zombies will be proud! 😭😭

@thomasfuchs @lisamelton Electron in Space…. Or rather slightly closer to space, then really the afterlife as their shit exploded… again.

@thomasfuchs That explains the explosions handily

@thomasfuchs I hope to god it's at least TypeScript

@thomasfuchs @kontrollierterWahnwitz uh oh...

@thomasfuchs

@thomasfuchs This is entirely consistent with a “move fast and break things” ethos. Though I’m not sure that mantra is supposed to include breaking multi-million dollar manned spacecraft. 🤦

@thomasfuchs I certainly wouldn't trust a Musk enterprise with my life. There are priorities that are all wrong. Not life-supportive. No matter which company.

@thomasfuchs Likely cheaper to find a random web developer than a proper program dev.

After all, we want to keep expenses to the bare minimum!

But yeah, no, that's unironically really worrying lmao

@thomasfuchs I'm more bewildered that you assume any professional device is any different. 😂

@thomasfuchs As the old fuck that I am who learned JS for Netscape-Navigator (<layer>) and Internet-Explorer (<div>) I am quite sure, that this is a bad idea.

I still think, Javascript is just for eye-candy and nothing more.

@thomasfuchs at least it's not Chrome

@thomasfuchs as long as you can sell something, an Musk sells shit all the time, nobody cares about the technology and the problems with it. People believe Musk is a tech messiah, so everything his companies do must be perfect.