Article View: comp.std.c
Article #1894Re: Shipping bogus code (was: Re: prototypes required ?)
From: Martin Minow
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 1990 23:31
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 1990 23:31
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In article <1990Oct24.164257.20928@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >In article <18632@rpp386.cactus.org> jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II) writes: >>I think Henry is being equally naive - if a vendor were required to fix >>every last bug prior to shipping a new release, we'd still be running on >>ENIACs... This is not necessarily a bad thing. In the 1960's worked for several years on a grandchild of Einiac (Eniac > Besk > Trask) that had a totally bug-free Algol-60 compiler (with prototypes and all). Rumor was that it had been written by E. Dijkstra. >Shipping an imperfect product is inevitable. I respectfully disagree with my esteemed collegue. Perhaps more importantly, I worry that it is dangerous to accept "inevitable imperfection" as it does not set a suitable goal for system/compiler/application developers. The problem is, however, that bug-free code is often invisble (my digital watch is bug-free, but I don't think of it as "software.") Martin Minow minow@bolt.enet.dec.com
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!decuac!mountn.dec.com!minow From: minow@mountn.dec.com (Martin Minow) Newsgroups: comp.std.c Subject: Re: Shipping bogus code (was: Re: prototypes required ?) Message-ID: <1994@mountn.dec.com> Date: 28 Oct 90 23:31:04 GMT References: <14164@smoke.BRL.MIL> <2150@lupine.NCD.COM> <27066@mimsy.umd.edu> <2173@lupine.NCD.COM> <27098@mimsy.umd.edu> <1990Oct22.231028.24623@zoo.toronto.edu> <18632@rpp386.cactus.org> <1990Oct24.164257.20928@zoo.toronto.edu> Reply-To: minow@mountn.UUCP (Martin Minow) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 23