FW: Software Vendors

[burelle@xxxxxxxx]

Expensive, and slow.  I had a client that said "Make this code monkey-proof, I 
want to be able to sit a monkey in that user's seat and he (the monkey) could 
do this right."  So we did, it had every bell and whistle known to man (or in 
this cause woman), it double checked every dot on every i, it had window lists 
for every field, with every possible value, it had commitment control.  It did 
every thing it was supposed to do, but it took twice as long to run.  After 
pouring three million dollars!!! into this system, they said 'we can't work 
like this, take some stuff out!'  So, yes, bug-free (both program logic and 
user interface) is possible, as I am fond of saying 'Anything is possible with 
enough time and money!' - Jo Ann
 ----------
From: oleblighty@home.com
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Software Vendors
Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 5:42PM

With the utmost respect.  That is just not correct.  You, in fact, CAN
make
100% bug free software.  Yes, it is difficult.  Yes, it is time consuming,
Yes, it does take thought.  Yes, it is prohibitively expensive.  But, it
_can_ be done.

This is program logic we are talking about, not some scientific principle.

A program's logic is not infinite.  There are only a certain number of
things that can go wrong.  These can _all_ be tested for.

Just 'cause we don't do it doesn't mean it can't (or should) be done.

If one can write a two line program with 0 bugs then one can write a 4
line
or 4 million line program with 0 bugs.  Unfortunately, no one is going to
be
able to afford it :)

Regards,

Mark.

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@fwi.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 4:45 AM
Subject: Re: Software Vendors


> Prove it. <g>
>
> This is not meant as a slam, but I just couldn't resist. <g>  IMO, one
> cannot prove that a piece of software has no bugs.  One can only prove
> that it _does_ have bugs.  This is done by finding one.  That fact that
> there is no known bug in a piece of software does not prove that it is
> bug free, it simply means no bugs have been found so far.
>
> --
> -Jeff


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