Re: A scary story from the real world.

[Brian Drummond <brian_drummond@btconnect.com>]

On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:15:10 +0100, Per Sandberg
<per.sandberg@bredband.net> wrote:

>Jerry wrote:
>> On Nov 9, 10:33 am, Per Sandberg <per.sandb...@bredband.net> wrote:
>>> I was on a conference this week and that opened my eyes on the complete
>>> ignorance of good compilers and languages in some the Reliable SW
>>> communities.
>>>    http://www.issre2007.hv.se/extra/pod/

>> Was Ada even mentioned?
>> Jerry
>> 
>> 
>
>No !
>And that was what i found scary.
> From my perspective the whole conference was about how to we make the 
>best out after we have crashed instead of how do we avoid to crash.
>

Apropos of which, are we supposed to laugh or cry on reading this?
http://www.techreview.com/Infotech/17831/page1/?a=f

"I think the real problem is that "we" (that is, we software developers)
are in a permanent state of emergency, grasping at straws to get our
work done. We perform many minor miracles through trial and error,
excessive use of brute force, and lots and lots of testing, but--so
often--it's not enough.

Software developers have become adept at the difficult art of building
reasonably reliable systems out of unreliable parts. The snag is that
often we do not know exactly how we did it: a system just "sort of
evolved" into something minimally acceptable. Personally, I prefer to
know when a system will work, and why it will."

... considering the source...

- Brian