Re: WSJ article on software liability

From: Traveler (traveler_at_nospam.com)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:28:32 -0500

In article <421FF9CA.A0C3ADC1@wecs.com>, Bryan Hoover
<bhoover@wecs.com> wrote:

>Traveler wrote:
>>
>> In article <9dru11tai75juq68cm27nqekocn8144n1p@4ax.com>, Programmer
>> Dude <Chris@Sonnack.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Traveler writes:
>> >
>> >> The Silver Bullet or How to Solve the Software Crisis:
>> >
>> >Silver Bullet?
>> >
>> >From that *alone* I know you're selling snake oil.
>>
>> And I know you can take your opinion and pack it up your ass, for all
>> I care.
>
>Oh the humanity :). I was so interestedly following this thread, and
>then, it turned ugly. Hate it when that happens. I know what you're
>saying though -- the snake oil comment was a bit insensitive I'd say --
>and I do.

I have very little patience for assholes. Sorry about the outburst.

>Seems to me what you're advocating here is a natural progression, and
>one that's been on the tip of my toungue for a long time. Hope it
>doesn't get *too* much like hardware though

It will be better than hardware because of the flexibility.

> -- rather, I fancy something
>more along the lines of "It's alive! It's alive!!"

You mean you want something tangible? Well, somebody has to build it
first. What I am proposing is a revolution, a radical approach to
software construction that will require new CPUs optimized for a
radically new software model. This kind of stuff does not happen
overnight.

>Rock steady big guy.

I have been saying essentially the same thing for close to twenty
years: there is a fundamental flaw in the way we program our
computers. It's only now that the software reliability crisis is
regularly making the evening news that Project COSA is beginning to
attract attention from the big software companies. Reliability
engineers have failed to solve the problem and they have failed
miserably. It's time for a change.

Louis Savain

The Silver Bullet: Why Software Is Bad and What We Can Do to Fix it
http://users.adelphia.net/~lilavois/Cosas/Reliability.htm