[Bluestrike2]

But the spectacular crash didn't pinpoint the problem. That came afterwards, when the manufacturer was able to look into the crash.

In a situation like this, confusion is all but inevitable. As a developer, the goal should be to minimize that confusion to the greatest extent possible. A blank screen and crash introduces another step to the process as people wonder "what's going on?" instead of "shit, it threw an error." It's probably not a big deal, but with medical devices during surgery, that extra step could be hugely problematic.

[chris_wot]

I wonder what surgeons think about software engineers? Except for open heart surgery, they don't normally do their fixes by stopping and starting the thing they are repairing...