From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,e01bd86884246855 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,fb1663c3ca80b502 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: xanthian@well.com (Kent Paul Dolan) Subject: Writing better software was: Design by Contract (was Re: Interesting thread in comp.lang.eiffel) Date: 2000/07/29 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 652082531 References: <8ipvnj$inc$1@wanadoo.fr> <39654639.B3760EF2@eiffel.com> Followup-To: poster X-Complaints-To: news@wenet.net X-Trace: news.wenet.net 964853529 208.178.101.2 (Fri, 28 Jul 2000 23:52:09 PDT) Organization: Birthright Party "The birthright of humankind is the stars!" Reply-To: xanthian@well.com (Kent Paul Dolan) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 23:52:09 PDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 2000-07-29T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: For those interested in how to write better software, the language is not the issue. Arguably the best software ever written was in some language "HAL" of which I never heard until reading the case study in CMU SEI's "The Capability Maturity Model". Driest thing I've read since falling to sleep once per page over the OSI seven level communications model standard years ago, but somewhere in every software practitioner's workspace should be a sign reading "It's the _process_, stupid!". In fact, use mine: http://www.well.com/user/xanthian/public/rants/process.html Humans are fallible, the best programming language with the spiffiest constructs doesn't change that, you need a process that takes human fallability into account and produces error free software despite it. The case study in the above book of necessity only follows the project studied up to the book's publication date. Later breaking news is the delivery of a suite of software for space shuttle control with one bug detected ever in the delivered product. Not "one bug per KLOC", _one_bug_. They got to that point with management science, not computer science. So should we all. W. Edwards Demming told us how long ago, and finally, someone on this side of the Pacific listened. Cheers! xanthian. ===== random archival quality quote ===== Self Test for Paranoia: You know you have it when you can't think of anything that's your own fault. -- from a fortune() program greeting -- Kent Paul Dolan.