Elevator Controller N. An Archetypal Dumb Embedded-systems Application, Like Toaster (which Superseded It).

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elevator controller n.

An archetypal dumb embedded-systems
application, like toaster (which superseded it). During one
period (1983-84) in the deliberations of ANSI X3J11 (the C
standardization committee) this was the canonical example of a
really stupid, memory-limited computation environment. "You can't
require printf(3) to be part of the default runtime library
-- what if you're targeting an elevator controller?" Elevator
controllers became important rhetorical weapons on both sides of
several holy wars.

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