It seems that JavaScript had a hand in delivering the beautiful pictures that the James Webb House Telescope has been beaming back to Earth. From a report: I imply that the precise telescope, arguably considered one of humanity’s best scientific achievements, is essentially managed by JavaScript recordsdata. Oh, and it is based mostly on a software program improvement equipment from 2002. Based on a manuscript (PDF) for the JWST’s Built-in Science Instrument Module (or ISIM), the software program for the ISIM is managed by “the Script Processor Process (SP), which runs scripts written in JavaScript upon receiving a command to take action.” The precise code accountable for turning these JavaScripts (NASA’s phrasing, not mine) into actions can run 10 of them without delay.
The manuscript and the paper (PDF) “JWST: Maximizing effectivity and minimizing floor programs,” written by the House Telescope Science Institute’s Ilana Dashevsky and Vicki Balzano, describe this course of in nice element, however I am going to oversimplify a bit to avoid wasting you the pages of studying. The JWST has a bunch of those pre-written scripts for doing particular duties, and scientists on the bottom can inform it to run these duties. Once they do, these JavaScripts will probably be interpreted by a program known as the script processor, which can then attain out to the opposite functions and programs that it must based mostly on what the script requires. The JWST is not operating an online browser the place JavaScript instantly controls the Mid-Infrared Instrument — it is extra like when a supervisor is given a listing of duties (on this instance, the JavaScripts) to do and delegates them out to their group.
