C# Memory Leak Torpedoed Princeton's DARPA Chances

nil0lab writes "In a case of 20/20 hindsight, Princeton DARPA Grand Challenge team member Bryan Cattle reflects on how their code failed to forget obstacles it had passed. It was written in Microsoft's C#, which isn't supposed to let you have memory leaks. 'We kept noticing that the computer would begin to bog down after extended periods of driving. This problem was pernicious because it only showed up after 40 minutes to an hour of driving around and collecting obstacles. The computer performance would just gradually slow down until the car just simply stopped responding, usually with the gas pedal down, and would just drive off into the bush until we pulled the plug. We looked through the code on paper, literally line by line, and just couldn't for the life of us imagine what the problem was.'"

Comments

Well, there's your problem!

[feepness]

We looked through the code on paper, literally line by line, and just couldn't for the life of us imagine what the problem was. This may be the least effective method of debugging in existence.

Re:Well, there's your problem!

[maxwell demon]

No no, that would be something along the lines of printing out the code and then throwing darts at the listing to figure out the incorrect line. I hear it is popular in Redmond, although they reputedly use chairs instead of darts. That makes sense: Since chairs are larger than darts, you have a much greater chance to hit the bugs.

Re:I'll show you mine if you..

[larry bagina]

Next you'll be telling me that I'm not a nerd and this stuff doesn't matter!!!