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If even one company came in and wrote software with

1. an API written by a software engineer

2. code written post 1970s that knew how to write a for loop and allocate memory

Then we would all be better off....I promise...

Its hard for me to...describe how bad it is...

Can you clarify this a little? Have you seen or worked with ATC code? I can believe some of your other comments about poor API specs, old code, aging infrastructure, etc., but I'm curious about your loop and allocation comments. My understanding is mission-critical software often has very strict formal verifications and bounds checking processes it goes through, and one of the techniques in those conditions involves loop unrolling. The absence of loops doesn't (always) mean bad software if it's designed to save lives. Just wanting to understand this particular complaint.

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