Opinions please : You can't (shouldn't) fix Stupid, remove the Stupid first and then see if you still have a problem.

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 8:47 AM, James Ashley <[email protected]>wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Johnathan Meehan
> > The best thing about code that doesn't exist is that it's guaranteed
> > 100% bug-free. :)
> >
> > To my own opinion, I tend to be a little more cautious even when I'm
> > sure I'm sure. I stick to one thing at a time, make a note of problems I
> > see whilst fixing the current and get back to them later. My real
> > concern, especially against a large code base, is missing a connection
> > and actually making my life harder with multiple bugs on the go (read,
> > burnt very subtly but very badly before).
>
> Yeah. A lot of the time those nasty tangled-up messes are there for a
> variety of reasons. Cumulative bug fixes and work-arounds for nasty
> issues.
>

Sometimes people do things that are amazingly Stupid and make you go
"WTF!?".

But by far people do the sanest and best thing they know... but being merely
human fail to see where ultimately it all ends.

I have always been fascinated (as a mouse watching a snake)
 ... by the step by cumulative tiny step process
 ... of sound, logical, (mostly good), rational decisions...
 .... leading ultimately to a distant
but devastatingly stupid conclusion.

You may in retrospect and humility examine each step in turn and conclude
each step was sound, perhaps not perfect, but basically sound.

But the quickest glance at the end result reveals that the result is
obviously blindingly wrong.

It doesn't sound like it's the case here, but...it's nice to know how
> the Stupid got in there in the first place.
>
>
And indeed, in this case it was so....

A large team of hardworking good smart men, acting in good faith, under
harsh schedule pressure, at each step, took the lowest risk, most rational
choice, over a period of several man decades leading ultimately to a
situation that makes your jaw drop and go WTF!?

A close reading of human history will reveal many such cases where the
result was deaths of thousands and tens of thousands.

So perhaps we programmers needn't feel so bad.


-- 
John Carter                             Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics                        Fax   : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch                Email : [email protected]
New Zealand





-- 
John Carter                             Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics                        Fax   : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch                Email : [email protected]
New Zealand

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