From: "Robert I. Eachus" <eachus@mitre.org>
Subject: Re: Ada GC (was Re: Ammo-zilla)
Date: 1999/11/12
Date: 1999-11-12T19:39:22+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <382C6E50.E43639E2@mitre.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 80c9fq$2qn$1@nntp4.atl.mindspring.net
Richard D Riehle wrote:
> What we call a "bug" is actually a mistake. Someone tried to do something
> and made a mistake. The mistake results in a defect. The defect is a
> potential run-time fault. Managers need to take the responsibility for
> elminating the word "bug" from the vocabulary of their software personnel.
I have to disagree. Yes, most bugs are mistakes, and are
determineded to be design errors or implementation errors. However,
there are other categories of bug that do not involve mistakes. For
example, ACT considers misleading error messages from the compiler to be
bugs. I agree, but since the "right" error messages can only be
determined by experience, these bugs are usually not mistakes.
As another example, failure to follow coding standards can be
mistakes. But if the standard changes, or more likely code developed
with one standard is merged with code using a different standard, the
discrepancies are bugs. (Not fixing them is a mistake, but at first
they are bugs.) Similarly, if you are moving code forward to use a new
version of some COTS product, incompatibilies are bugs, but they are
normally not mistakes.
These conditions are not limited to software. For example, if your
job is to modify a transmission design to work with a different engine,
there may be many discrepancies to be resolved. These were not
originally mistakes, and they will
only be potential faults if you fail to resolve them. Or consider
circut board layout. If your original try at laying out a board has 73
disconnects, it doesn't mean that you made 73 mistakes. It may take you
days to reduce that number to zero (or in some cases to a small number
of wires), but that is part of the design process.
Some people would go further and say that all potential faults
detected during unit test, or even integration test are not mistakes. I
don't feel that all fall into that category, but there are certainly
cases where the job of integration is to resolve unintended conflicts
where there is no blame to be allocated. Of course, one of the nice
things about Ada is that there are very few opportunities to innocently
create such conflicts. On the other hand using a C++ compiler without
namespace support is a mistake, and the blame should be laid somewhere
if you get to integration and you have unrepairable naming conflicts.
--
Robert I. Eachus
with Standard_Disclaimer;
use Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-11-12 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 92+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-10-23 0:00 Ammo-zilla Stanley R. Allen
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Botton
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Aidan Skinner
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Aidan Skinner
1999-10-25 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Jean-Pierre Rosen
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Botton
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Charles Hixson
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Matthew Heaney
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla mitch
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Matthew Heaney
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Tucker Taft
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Brian Rogoff
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Brian Rogoff
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Brian Rogoff
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert A Duff
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Laurent Guerby
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Charles Hixson
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ada and GC (Was Re: Ammo-zilla) Vladimir Olensky
1999-10-29 0:00 ` David Botton
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-10-30 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
1999-10-30 0:00 ` David Botton
1999-10-28 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Starner
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Larry Kilgallen
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Starner
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Botton
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla mike
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Botton
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Charles Hixson
1999-11-03 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Wes Groleau
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Geoff Bull
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Matthew Heaney
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Charles Hixson
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Tucker Taft
1999-10-30 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Lutz Donnerhacke
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Garbage colletion Lutz Donnerhacke
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Gnat IDE (was: Garbage colletion) Ted Dennison
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Garbage colletion Lutz Donnerhacke
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-04 0:00 ` Didier Utheza
1999-11-04 0:00 ` David Starner
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Lutz Donnerhacke
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla David Starner
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ada and GC. Was: Ammo-zilla Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Charles Hixson
1999-11-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-03 0:00 ` Charles Hixson
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert A Duff
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-01 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert A Duff
1999-11-02 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-03 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-03 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-11-04 0:00 ` Ada GC (was Re: Ammo-zilla) Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-06 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-06 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-06 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-06 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-09 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-11-10 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-11-10 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-11-10 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-11-10 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-11-12 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-11-12 0:00 ` Didier Utheza
1999-11-12 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-11-12 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus [this message]
1999-11-04 0:00 ` Ada GC (was Ammo-zilla) Nick Roberts
1999-11-04 0:00 ` Wes Groleau
1999-10-30 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Lutz Donnerhacke
1999-10-30 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Matthew Heaney
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-29 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert I. Eachus
1999-10-31 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Robert Dewar
1999-10-24 0:00 ` Ammo-zilla Matthew Heaney
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