Re: Languages don't matter. A mathematical refutation

["Jean François Martinez" <darkquark99@gmail.com>]

On Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 3:36:02 PM UTC+2, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> 
> > To change the subject a bit, is there any possibility of using
> > the probabilistic approach to estimating the long-term cost of
> > maintenance given a history of errors with a particular language?
> 
> I don't think so. Errors do not occur, they are present or introduced. The
> only probabilistic model could be random selection of a given error from
> the pool of errors. This is not related to the language choice. All
> difference here is in the pools, since errors made in C are different from
> errors made in Ada. You change the language, you get *other* errors, no
> statistics across to compare.
> 

Really?  Errors occur because of progarmmer quality, physical shape (had a bad night), distracting events, use of alcohol and drugs and plenty, plenty of factors.   One of them being that a bird has just landed  in front of your window.  Random.  

Then you take a lot of programmers or more exactly two lots, calculate averages, standard deviations and apply the appropriate test against that difference.  Then that test tells you if difference is too small to discard the null hypothesis (same rate of success for both groups) or far too large for it holding water.  Ij the later case you try to understand why.

BTW.  Since you brought this silliness: defect rate in manufacturing plants is not governed by thermodynamics but by factors such as equipment and state of teh work force.   On Mondays (use of alcohol during week-end) and Friday (tiredness) you are going to find a significantly higher rate of defects and of work accidents.  Significantly like far beyind what could be expected from just random noise.

Jean François Martinez