More Than Coding Errors Behind Bad Software 726
An anonymous reader writes "SANS' just-released list of the Top 15 most dangerous programming errors obscures the real problem with software development today, argues InfoWeek's Alex Wolfe. In More Than Coding Mistakes At Fault In Bad Software, he lays the blame on PC developers (read: Microsoft) who kicked the time-honored waterfall model to the curb and replaced it not with object-oriented or agile development but with a 'modus operandi of cramming in as many features as possible, and then fixing problems in beta.' He argues that youthful programmers don't know about error-catching and lack a sense of history, suggesting they read Fred Brooks' 'The Mythical Man-Month,' and Gerald Weinberg's 'The Psychology of Computer Programming.'"
a book never written (Score:5, Funny)
Fred Brooks's 'The Mythical Man-Month',
I read that as "the Mythical Man-Moth." I bet that would be a great book.
Re:When I was breaking in (Score:5, Funny)
>There are geniuses and idiots in all groups.
Most of both groups are within two standard deviations of a norm. Your idiots are probably smarter than you think and your geniuses are probably not as smart as you'd like to believe.
Re:a book never written (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention cartoon and live-action series [wikipedia.org].
Re:Its all true (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Perfection Has a Price (Score:5, Funny)
I am 40 years old and have been in this world since I was around 10 or so
You're 30 dude. Deal with it.
error 26: 15 !=25 (Score:4, Funny)
The article link says top 25 errors....
Went on to fame and fortune (Score:4, Funny)
Luckily Microsoft stepped in and bought the company, and now market the product as X-Box.
Re:Its all true (Score:3, Funny)
It's because we know how fulla shit people under 30 are. Don't worry, you'll agree before ya know it, champ.
Re:Modus Operandi (Score:3, Funny)
Except that what you actually do is promise to paint it red even though you know that you do not have and cannot get any red paint.
It doesn't matter, anyway, because the customer changes his mind mid-project and wants it blue. After it's delivered, they realize they wanted a bicycle, not software. Nonetheless, they attempt to ride it.
While this makes about as much sense as the Chewbacca Defense, this explains a good 50% of the projects I've worked on. Hm. Right, I'll just sob in my tea now...
Re:When I was breaking in (Score:2, Funny)
int f() { return 5050; } ?
Re:When I was breaking in (Score:5, Funny)
"Write a function to sum all the numbers from 0 to 100"
easy
dim a a = 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17+18+19+20+21+22+23+24+25;
a = a+26+27+28+29+30+31+32+33+34+35+36+37+38+39+40+41+42+43+44+45+46+47+48+49+50;
a = a+51+52+53+54+55+56+57+58+59+60+61+62+63+64+65+66+67+68+69+70+71+72+73+74+75;
a = a+76+77+78+79+80+81+82+83+84+85+86+87+88+89+90+91+92+93+94+95+96+97+98+99+100; print a;
Re:Perfection Has a Price (Score:1, Funny)
"Ship it! Ship it and let our users flee like the dogs that they are!"
-- Klingon Programmers' Guide
Re:The customer pays in the end. Every time. (Score:3, Funny)
You know that managers buy the software with the best box design and the best marketing spinners, right?
Re:Perfection Has a Price (Score:3, Funny)
We might be seriously seeing the Ultimate Slashdot Car Analogy. My library informs me that the auto industry struggled with exactly this 30 years ago. Spurred by the Japanese that time, someone noticed that while the cost profile shifts, it really wasn't all that bad making quiet quality improvements across the line.
Yes, we have some fun little beta tech fragments in the works, but the big engines of Office and Browsers are pretty solid, and the OS market is going to hit the comparable maturity in another 5ish years.
With nothing earth shattering available, someone is gonna get 100 OldTimers into a big building for a month and decide to razor down the cruft of existing apps to sell the next iteration on speed improvements.
Re:When I was breaking in (Score:5, Funny)
I'm beginning to realize that I chose a terrible sample question to post here.
Re:When I was breaking in (Score:2, Funny)
ah ah you failed. You forgot to add the zero. Idiot.
Re:a book never written (Score:1, Funny)
Don't be fooled. The Man-Moth is no myth.