Re: "jet engine control software ... stack based language."
"jet engine control software written in what looks like a stack based language."
Maybe you're thinking of the LUCOL language, which wasn't stack based but could easily look like it was?
There is finally an online version of a ten-page early 1980s paper written by the original designers of the language (at Lucas Aerospace) and published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers:
http://journals.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/data/Conferences/ASMEP/83943/V005T14A006-82-GT-251.pdf
Other than that there's remarkably little written about it even though it was in so many Rolls Royce engines that RR eventually bought the relevant bits of Lucas Aerospace.
Still flying, still being updated, on some older RR engines and maybe elsewhere. New-from-scratch stuff tends to be hand-crated Ada or even autogenerated from model based system engineering models.
Those who are familiar with some of the better PLC programming languages (beyond ladder logic) may recognise some of the concepts even if the terminology and process is different.
Paper abstract:
"An Approach to Software for High Integrity Applications
W.C.Dolman J.P.Parkes
This paper outlines one approach taken in designing a software system for the production of high quality software for use in gas turbine control applications.
Central to the approach is a special control language with its inherent features of visibility, reliability and testability, leading to a software system which can be applied to applications in which the integrity of the units is of prime importance.
The structure of the language is described together with the method of application in the field of aircraft gas turbine control. The provision of documentation automatically is an integral part of the system together with the testing procedures and test documentation. A description of how these features are combined into the total software system is also given."
Biting the hand that feeds IT
