Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!seibel
From: seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Computer Scientist Publishes 865 Errors
Message-ID: <12023@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Date: 10 Oct 89 07:43:31 GMT
References: <8910091549.AA17481@mitre.arpa> <1989Oct10.015725.24517@agate.berkeley.edu>
Sender: daemon@cgl.ucsf.edu
Reply-To: seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel)
Organization: Computer Graphics Lab, UCSF
Lines: 36

In article <1989Oct10.015725.24517@agate.berkeley.edu> bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes:

>Knuth makes at least 4 claims that some might think are contradictory
>to current SE theory.
>	(Paraphrasing from memory):
>	1) The designer should do the implementaion.
>	2) The designer should do the testing.
>	3) The designer should do the (first) user manual.
>	4) After design, implementation and user input,
>	redesign and reimplement.
>
>Is this how it's done in your shop?

It sounds like Knuth is telling us: "If you want something done right..."
In the first article of this thread, Richard Botting offers a clue to
how Knuth's suggestions may have developed:

     "His original design was reviewed by others and implemented by 2
      graduate students while he was outside the country..."

So what did Knuth expect?   What should anyone expect in such a situation?
If you want professional quality software, it would seem appropriate to
hire professionals to do the implementation, and pay them what they are
worth.   As for points 1-4 above, I think that it is appropriate for
the designers to at least be *involved* in the implementation, testing,
and documentation.   Step 4 is often appropriate, and is probably done
far less often than it should be.  Skipping the redesign/reimplementation
is usually false economy.   I've seen this from both sides;  after totalling
up the time spent in maintainance of something that needed a complete
redesign, it became painfully apparent that it would have been cheaper in
the long run to do it right,  and in other cases I've done rewrites that
took far less time than the original design/coding effort, and paid off in
far better software.

George Seibel, UCSF
speaking for myself only.