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Why not Javascript? I would argue that a good usable UI in a spacecraft is a good thing, and Javascript is a great language for building UIs
Javascript is a bad language period. For anything. It's used for UIs for historical reasons, not because it's good.
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Any idea if there's a database layer (eg SQLite, PG, etc) on the systems?
On the ground side, yes, there are many databases for different purposes. But not on the actual flight software.
Using a gigantic overly complex software written in a non-memory-safe language for a system that gives commands to the flight control system? This is how you get the Cylons pwning your spaceships. >sigh<
Adama wouldn't have worried so much about networked ships if the people who programmed this ship programmed Battlestars. They still used COBOL.
But they were experts in using it, some even say Lords
From the latest video NASA uploaded, the astronauts explain that the UI sends "commands", and if it fails, they have physical buttons below the screen to send these commands. https://mobile.twitter.com/NASA/status/1266885097359388672
The UI at 2:22 is very similar to the one discussed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23162820 as seems to use three.js and GSAP. Also, the open-source Lato font seems to be used throughout the interface.
That'd be a really nice touch, one of my favourite fonts for effects. Released after client who commissioned it, a chain of retail bookstores, rejected the design. Largest deployment till now, although just dumped in redesign, was for headings at classifieds website OLX. Caught eyes for a while I guess.
No need then for an especially legible font for cockpit screens like Airbus required https://b612-font.com/ following decades of practices in avionics. Of course the use-case is different and I'm sure everything is adequate for SpaceX goals. Like with the several layers of spontaneously rebooting virtual machines in Tesla cars, in the end branding looks gorgeous.
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I believe the choice of Chromium and JS for the UI simply shows that the astronauts are merely inconvenient payloads. Gagarin's first flight was already fully automated 59 years ago.
Right, I think the crew dragon is intended to fly fully automatic from launch to docking? But imagine if there is an emergency and the crew need to take over, but lo and behold, chromium crashed! Hopefully the spacecraft can still be operated without the display.
Sounds kinda disappointing/irresponsible. Chromium is an overly complex, relatively buggy piece of software. For example I recently experienced a bug where a text I selected was significantly offset from what should have been selected given the pointer position (on linux), a misclicky kind of bug. Considering that the majority of Crew Dragon's controls are through touch screen, maybe even manual docking(not sure, but…
I don't see why. Chromium is being used in the UI. Not on critical flight software. > maybe even manual docking It isn't done manually > C++ and linux do not strike me as mission critical piece of software / language either A lot of flight software is done on C++, as you even mentioned. In the end, your best reliability partner is not using a language that's only know by fewer people. What would be a good "mission cr…
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On the ground side, yes, there are many databases for different purposes. But not on the actual flight software.
Very curious, how is state persisted where non-volatile storage is needed, and how is that persistence structured?
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Just because they do, doesn’t mean you should. I’m running an automotive firmware project at the moment and there are such things as software integrity levels, and each time you add something to the stack you create quite a large amount of testing and validation and process that needs to be followed. And it’s pretty much impossible to take something existing like Chromium and certify it to what you need. The architec…
I think it is not helpful to call out that their architecture is "wrong" and their process is "wrong". The attribute "wrong" is very opaque. As somebody who doesn't have your background, i cannot follow you. I have no idea about automotive and space software requirements. Since there are many aspects that lead to choices of a system architecture it requires more words to explain why a choice is not a good choice for…
Sounds kinda disappointing/irresponsible. Chromium is an overly complex, relatively buggy piece of software. For example I recently experienced a bug where a text I selected was significantly offset from what should have been selected given the pointer position (on linux), a misclicky kind of bug. Considering that the majority of Crew Dragon's controls are through touch screen, maybe even manual docking(not sure, but…
Why not Javascript? I would argue that a good usable UI in a spacecraft is a good thing, and Javascript is a great language for building UIs