Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!philmtl!ray
From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Help...
Message-ID: <758@philmtl.philips.ca>
Date: 16 Oct 89 18:25:35 GMT
References: <731@carroll1.UUCP> <39902@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1254@virtech.UUCP> <18227@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <143@.rsp.is>
Reply-To: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Organization: Philips Electronics Ltd. -  St. Laurent  P.Q., Canada
Lines: 21

In article <143@.rsp.is> orn@rsp.is (Orn E. Hansen) writes:
>> Randomly trying things, in the absence of an understanding of what's
>> really going on, is no way to solve a computer problem.
>>
>Randomly trying things gives you a multiple perspective to observe a single
>point.  Sometimes called SCIENCE, and used to gain new ways and methods to
>help humanity on it's path through life.

Randomly trying things **to solve a computer software problem** is probably
the single most abhorent thing I have to contend with when dealing with
junior (and sometimes not-so-junior) programmers.

The chaos is not caused when this "technique" is used to explore the limits
of the problem, but when it is used to find a "solution" (i.e.  "that has
made the problem go away = the problem has been solved").

-- 
Ray Dunn.                    | UUCP: ray@philmt.philips.ca
Philips Electronics Ltd.     |       ..!{uunet|philapd|philabs}!philmtl!ray
600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd | TEL : (514) 744-8200  Ext : 2347 (Phonemail)
St Laurent. Quebec.  H4M 2S9 | FAX : (514) 744-6455  TLX : 05-824090