[Interest] Chasing a standard

Roland Hughes roland at logikalsolutions.com
Mon Nov 5 13:35:13 CET 2018


On 11/4/18 3:52 PM, Lars Knoll wrote:
>> On 4 Nov 2018, at 22:13, Roland Hughes <roland at logikalsolutions.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> We already lose droves of Qt developers every year when Qt keeps moving on but medical devices, border security systems like cargo x-ray, train control systems, etc. have to fork their own version of Qt because Qt keeps moving on without a 5-8 year LTS.
> Yes, the Open source and standard commercial versions come with a maximum of 3 years for LTS releases. But you can get longer support for Qt versions from The Qt Company though.

Three years isn't a drop of water in Lake Michigan. A completely new 
surgical robot will take a minimum of 4 years design and prototyping 
followed by 1-3 years of development (which must also include the 
_entire_ manufacturing process for certification.) Then it goes through 
clinical trials which can last upwards of 7 years. Once released to the 
field it will be in maintenance/minor enhancement mode for 10 years or 
more. This entire time the tool set must be locked down.

While that may seem like a long time it pales in comparison with drug 
manufacturing. Those manufacturing systems must be locked down from the 
moment of certification until the drug leaves the market. Setting up a 
new line with new tools requires a shiny new certification process. Just 
this year a drug manufacturer in California fielded a job opening 
looking for a PDP-11 systems manager familiar with hardware maintenance. 
Some of you may recall that a PDP-11 was the machine C and UNIX were 
developed on in the 1970s. It was _the_ midrange computer of its day but 
hasn't been manufactured since the late 1980s. The drug(s) whose line(s) 
it controls are obviously still on the market and obviously it is not 
worth the cost and pain of retooling and recertification. This situation 
happens with drugs to treat rare diseases. The market simply isn't large 
enough to bring in competitors making generics.


-- 
Roland Hughes, President
Logikal Solutions
(630) 205-1593

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