[Interest] List traffic disappearing?

[Roland Hughes]

On 8/21/21 5:00 AM, Bernhard Lindner wrote:
> Also one special person was banned from the list. He surely started a lot of controversies
> and even fights but he was also responsibly for a significant part of the trafic:-)  
>
> Personally, I generally lost interest in Qt because I am not target audience of Qt
> anymore. But I have no idea if other people feel this way as well.

As far as I know not banned, just no reason to post. Qtc has achieved 
its goal of getting Qt banned at most medical device companies. Been 
involved in a lot of discussions about where everything is going now.

One client had full contract from design through FDA testing and 
manufacturing with a deep pocket client they had created devices for 
previously. When they finished the electronic board design files they 
told the client they wanted to use Qt for the software. That was it. 
Client took the files and cancelled the entire project. Many many 
millions went out the door at the mere mention of using Qt.

Another end client recently finished proof-of-concept clinical trials 
outside of the U.S. where they didn't adhere to any FDA development 
standards. It was a non-invasive device so they could play a little fast 
and loose. They had used Qt on a Raspberry Pi to mock things up for the 
proof-of-concept. I told them through the service company to not even 
look at Qt for production, but they scheduled some chats with Qtc anyway.

"Those guys are crazy!"

Actual quote from them. Qt is no longer under consideration for any 
current or future devices.

All of the deep pocket customers have listened to the license roulette 
shenanigans and the answer to nearly ever license question on this list 
being "meet with your sales rep in a dark alley so they can club you and 
take all your money."

Earlier this year when this patient killing bug

https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-12055

jacked up another medical device, more than a decade after it was 
discovered and more than eight years after people started pointing out 
the disconnect() wasn't actually disconnecting the QFile object was the 
absolute last straw for most. Yes, it is supposedly closed now, but too 
little too late. Nobody is going to allow Qt to be used on anything new. 
Mentioning you have a Qt license or want to use Qt makes you a pariah in 
the industry.

I haven't spoken to the them directly, but there is talk some of the 
Risk Management personnel at more than one company are putting together 
a citizen petition for the FDA.

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/dockets-management/instructions-submitting-citizen-petitions-cps-electronically

Will set heavy regulations for software being sold into medical 
device/systems development with significant punitive, possibly clinical 
damages for vendors selling software into this market allowing patient 
killing bugs to exist for longer than 60 days after reporting. The 
definition of "patient killing bug" to be any bug tied to a race or 
abend condition like a seg-fault, stack dump, unhandled exception, etc.

I haven't been watching the list very closely

https://www.regulations.gov/search?documentTypes=Proposed%20Rule&filter=software%20safety

so I haven't seen it pop up yet. Of course the trouble with that 
database is that it is the central repository for proposed federal 
regulations, not just the FDA.

It's not just Qtc. Lots of places are trying to sell OpenSource into a 
SAFETY environment without creating a SAFETY quality version. Versions 
of the discussion have been going on since 2000

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2000-D-0130-0005

and standards get routinely updated.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2016-N-0406-0017

The 2011 regulation just isn't covering everything anymore.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2008-N-0106-0032

So, to answer the question, all of the contractors and developers who 
worked for/width medical-device-in-a-box type companies who used to 
frequent here, aren't using Qt anymore. Risk Management teams have 
deemed use of Qt too high of a legal liability were a wrongful death or 
other class action suit to go to trial. Having abend (known as patient 
killing) type bugs in the bug database for years pretty much does the 
work for the opposing legal team. Most people on a jury don't write 
software for a living. They just hear that this list of bugs, any one of 
which could kill their loved one in the right medical device, has been 
known to exist for over N-years and the tool was used anyway.

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

http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com
http://www.infiniteexposure.net
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