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From: rst@cs.hull.ac.uk (Rob Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Code Inspections
Message-ID: <15469.9102041851@olympus.cs.hull.ac.uk>
Date: 4 Feb 91 18:51:02 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 26

pat@megatest.UUCP (Patrick Powers) writes:

> [a lot of stuff about code inspections, which I generally agree with]

I believe that with software as it is currently written, code
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inspections are by far the best way of removing bugs. A few competent
programmers around a table discussing a piece of code will quickly
iron out any faults.

However, code inspections should not really be necessary. If you have
*designed* your system properly, and have a collection of relatively
small modules with well defined interfaces, then coding these modules
should be a particularly straightforward task with little (though
admittedly some) scope for error.

My point is that inspections should be performed at the *design*
stage, before any coding has been carried out (even before the
implementation language has been chosen). Of course, the end product
of the design should be concrete enough for any programmer to be able
to produce the requisite code from with little thought. Design
solutions which are at too high a level and leave a great deal to the
imagination of the programmer are no good (even though the programmer
may feel he/she has more room to express his/her talents).

Rob