From: Richard D Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Business Week (12/6/99 issue) article on Software Quality
Date: 1999/12/08
Date: 1999-12-08T22:09:27+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <82mkun$1to$1@nntp4.atl.mindspring.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 82kv5j$k6p$1@nnrp1.deja.com
In article <82kv5j$k6p$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:
>In article <82hk54$cbc$1@nntp6.atl.mindspring.net>,
> Richard D Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>> Software development is the only engineering wannabee that
>> euphemizes its mistakes with the cutsey monicker, "bug."
>
>
>Seeing as the first recorded use of this word is by Thomas
>Edison, in connectin with work on some electronics, this
>seems a dubious claim.
Although this may be historically accurate, contemporary engineering
practice does not encourage the use of "bug." In fact, Edison, for
all of his genius, was operating at a level of engineering discipline
somewhat parallel to the early days of unstructured programming. Much
of his work was equivalent of what Pressman calls, "exploratory
programming." I stand by my claim that no responsible engineer, in
any other discipline, would give the excuse that, "The bridge collapsed
because there was a bug," or "The circuit fried because of a bug."
Granted that some IC manufacturers have adopted this terminology to
account for errors in their own designs, but the fact remains that
these are errors, not bugs. They originate in 1) incomplete understanding
of the physics, 2) failure to work out the logic correctly, 3) occasional
negligence, 3) excessive haste, or any number of other factors.
When an automobile gas tank explodes due to a collision with another
car, is that a function of a bug? Of course not.
An engineering discipline in its infancy may be able to assign mystical
properties to the mistakes it makes and call them bugs. As that engineer
becomes more mature, the engineers and engineering management become more
responsible, more precise in their language. Sometimes we may not know
what error created the defect. We would want to admit that and go on to
find the error. Fortunately, this is exactly what good programmers do
about bugs. Sadly, some major software publishers continue to release
software in which they acknowledge "known bugs," a phrase that has the
effect of minimizing the importance of the defects. If that software
were released with a list of "known mistakes" one can imagine the
litigation that might ensue.
Richard Riehle
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-12-08 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 44+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-12-01 0:00 Business Week (12/6/99 issue) article on Software Quality Michael P. Card
1999-12-01 0:00 ` ld
1999-12-01 0:00 ` Michael P. Card
1999-12-02 0:00 ` Preben Randhol
1999-12-01 0:00 ` Preben Randhol
1999-12-01 0:00 ` Michael P. Card
1999-12-07 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle [this message]
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Greg Martin
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Keith Thompson
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Roger Racine
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Ray Blaak
1999-12-11 0:00 ` Geoff Bull
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Roger Racine
1999-12-11 0:00 ` Geoff Bull
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Jerry Maple
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-14 0:00 ` P.S> Norby
1999-12-11 0:00 ` Jeffrey L Straszheim
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-12-08 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Georg Bauhaus
1999-12-10 0:00 ` Preben Randhol
1999-12-08 0:00 ` jim_snead
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-12-09 0:00 ` John English
1999-12-09 0:00 ` Preben Randhol
1999-12-02 0:00 ` John Duncan
1999-12-12 0:00 ` Ronald Caudill
1999-12-13 0:00 ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1999-12-13 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-12-13 0:00 ` John Duncan
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