> If you're making something like an LCD mounting bracket, do you actually 
> do a detailed simulation for that component?

Only if it's in a place where someone could grab hold of it and tug it. 
Best example is when it's mounted sticking up from the top of the dashboard 
like this:

http://image.motortrend.com/f/9217160/112_0611_03z+2005_bmw_x3+interior_dash.jpg

It has to be able to withstand somebody grabbing hold of it and pulling to 
help themselves out of the car, in that case the metal is much thicker and 
we run finite element simulations to check.  It's further complicated 
because during an accident if someone hits the display it must collapse 
backwards and not be rigid, so you kind of need 1-way strength :-)

> Or do you just do "OK, well we're using 0.3 mm steel for the rest of the 
> frame, so let's use 0.3 mm steel"? (And change it if it turns out to be 
> too weak...)

For most other things, yes, or just based on our experience from the 100 
other LCDs we've made over the last 10 years.  On a recent project we had to 
change from 0.3 to 0.4 mm metal after some clips that were designed by the 
customer were not strong enough.  Nobody tested for this or simulated it, 
but to be honest there is no need as things like that always show up in the 
early samples before we get anywhere near making the mass production tools.

> The fun thing is if you want to ran GHC on an unsupported platform. This 
> apparently involves asking GHC to compile itself into ANSI C, and then 
> using a suitable C compiler for the target platform to produce a working 
> binary.

And I guess the C compiler can be cross-compiled on a pre-existing platform.

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