Developer given Mission:Impossible - fixing rubbish code that could crash a city - simply chose not to accept it
- ID
- 16350
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 21 Aug 2026, 2:30 PM
- Fetched
- 21 Aug 2026, 3:20 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/08/21/developer-given-missionimpossible-fixing-rubbish-code-that-could-crash-a-city-simply-chose-not-to-accept-it/5290120
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 2.0
- Created
- 21 Aug 2026, 3:20 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
A Register 'On Call' anecdote features a developer sent to a power station to document and fix undocumented monitoring code running on a dusty CP/M machine connected to a turbine overspeed detector. Faced with no documentation and the risk of causing a turbine overspeed or city-wide blackout, he decided the safest action was to not touch the code at all.
Why it matters
The story is an entertaining reminder that when you inherit undocumented critical-infrastructure code with no way to verify behavior, the correct engineering decision may be to walk away rather than make changes you cannot safely test. There is no actionable technical detail, product release, or policy change here.
Discussion angle
When have you encountered production code so undocumented and high-stakes that the right call was to leave it alone, and how do you formalize that decision for stakeholders who expect a fix?