elevator controller: n.

An archetypal dumb embedded-systems application, like toaster (which superseded it). During one period (1983–84) in the deliberations of ANSI X3J11 (the C standardization committee) this was the canonical example of a really stupid, memory-limited computation environment. “You can’t require printf(3) to be part of the default runtime library — what if you’re targeting an elevator controller?” Elevator controllers became important rhetorical weapons on both sides of several holy wars.