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superseded it).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.