Re: "Bugs" (Was: Anyone could give a complete and yet small program on the use for the generic

[Richard Riehle <rriehle@nunic.nu.edu>]

On Sat, 4 Jan 1997, Rich Maggio wrote:

> Mike, you seemed to have forgotten the most basic
> axiom in software engineering - 
> 
> 	"All software has bugs!" :-)

  In software engineering we have abandoned the term "bug" in favor
  of the word, "mistake."  Software practice has long been the only
  engineering wannabee that has chosen to abdicate responsibility for
  its own errors by euphemizing those errors with the word, "bug."

  The original "bug" was an actual insect that orginated outside the
  computer in which it appeared.  If an error in one program originates
  in some other program, it might be a "bug" in that receiving program,but
  it is probably someone else's mistake.

  A programming mistake results in a software defect. The defect is the
  cause of a run-time fault.  It is encouraging to see the relatively
  recent metric, "defect density" in wider use.  Now we simply need to
  attribute those defects to mistakes instead of to "bugs."

  Following on the proposition stated by Mr. Maggio, we may ask the
  question, "Does all software contain mistakes?"

  Richard Riehle