Bugs

[Ross Johnson]

On Tue, 4 Aug 1998, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:

> The Australian, 4/8/98
> Page 40
> NT Defect a Boon For Imposters
> Tenth Paragraph
> First Line
> 
> The bug consists of code written by programmers.
> 
> I really don't know what to say.
> 

There is a class of "bugs" which are not the result of errors in code,
usage, or necessarily poor design.

An increasing number of problems only arise when complex systems interact
with each other.  The results of all possible interactions can literally
be impossible to predict.  Mix that with millions of individual users
exercising these systems in thousands of different ways and you have
"bugs" guarranteed to arise at some time or other.

This is the environment in which all processing hardware and software is
expected to work these days. A single software package may contain many
complex interacting systems.

Open Source "Bazaar" model development is one response to this particular
challenge. 

Ross Johnson