>>>>>Go write an auto-pilot system for a 400-seat airliner.
>>>
>>>Would it be easier to write one for a 200 seater?
>>
>>No. But the ramifications of a design flaw would be less. We both picked arbitrary points in the spectrum Towards the one end is the single catastrophic failure resulting in hundreds of deaths; at the other a fixable mild frustation when, say, submitting a web form.
>>
>>Because of the nature of the tools generally discussed here I'd hazard that the closest that clients of most UT posters come to a risk of physical injury is being hit by a print head - or possibly an over-enthusiastic cash drawer :-}
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>I did a hazardous materials database for London Fire and Civil defence Authority some years ago and a backup for their Pre Determined Attendance system. No crashing airliners but it was very interesting.

I *did* do some peripheral work on an early Airbus simulator - so I did get to crash that :-{
I also once worked on an automated crane system. Once you'd seen that drop a 2 ton container from a height of 20' you learnt to look at the code pretty carefully before hitting F5 :-}