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Thought this link would be of interest to all current and would-be programmers and engineers....
From this text: "All safety-critical applications depend on software, but software is among the most imperfect of the products of modern technology".
staff.washington.edu/.../safety-critical.html
but the point is VERY valid. Do note that the article says "The central problem was not that some individual made a couple of mistakes while writing the computer code that handled the X-ray target. That was inevitable; the best programmers make lots of mistakes. The real problem was ..." Do not take this as a licence to make errors, but as advice to concentrate on making absolutotally sure that no safety hazard exist especially when the unit mlfunctions and do not waste an inordinate amount on time on the non-critical things. Today TTM makes it so that you will not have time to make everything foolproof, but you must insist on time to make all safety hazards foolproof.
Erik
I definitely recommend reading a more complete text about the Therac-25.
sunnyday.mit.edu/.../therac.pdf