Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!vsi1!daver!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: Error checking, code criticism, and manners Message-ID: <27B18E6D.3017@tct.uucp> Date: 7 Feb 91 17:29:16 GMT References: <14994:Feb207:10:4791@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Feb6.051432.2846@zoo.toronto.edu> <9287:Feb612:51:2891@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> Organization: Teltronics/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 36 According to brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein): >You can have an infinite amount of defensive programming, down to >running a = b + c in triplicate and getting the majority-vote result. The issue is not processor integrity, but checking reported errors from system calls. I appreciate the analysis of the pty program, which I elided. For the record, I have never accused Dan of being a poor programmer. My only contention is that criticism of programming style, when offered, should be given in a spirit of humility and with an almost complete lack of flat statements. [:-)] To do otherwise is not only unrealistic; it defeats the entire purpose of constructive criticism, namely, to help the recipient. If you do not expect the recipient to benefit from invective, why post it? >Compared to ``professional'' Berkeley source ... Berkeley source is a straw man -- everyone knows it's largely horrid. So is System V source, and even V7 source, for that matter. >When someone says that a small number of passes is an important goal in >and of itself, he's being silly. It's just a heuristic. >If I didn't have as much respect for you and your work, this article >would be a lot shorter (and a hell of a lot less polite). Something like >.... To say "I'm too polite to say " is to contradict oneself. -- Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT , "Most of my code is written by myself. That is why so little gets done." -- Herman "HLLs will never fly" Rubin