Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!rpi!uupsi!pbs.org!TALOS!jerry From: jerry@TALOS.UUCP (Jerry Gitomer) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Reusability considered harmful??(!!) Message-ID: <1127@TALOS.UUCP> Date: 18 Feb 91 15:13:26 GMT References: <88431@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <6108@stpstn.UUCP> <87829@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <6248@stpstn.UUCP> <1991Feb11.103100.112@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com> <34464@athertn.Atherton.COM> Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA Lines: 29 jls@yoda.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) writes: :Your points about testing requirements are interesting, and there has :been a lot of discussion of this in the Ada community because Ada provides :generics, which can be reused indefinitely PROVIDED they are trusted. :The odd thing is, people worry about testing inherited code, but they :are looking at it wrong, I think. If you have gotten some software that :asserts it can be inherited from, you should treat that software like :an IC. You don't second-guess Intel, right? If the software DOES break, :it should be something you can take to the courts, just as a chip that :failed to perform to spec would be grounds for restitution. :Until people get comfortable with the idea of off-the-shelf software being :just as much of a black box as ANY OTHER COMMODITY, we will continue to :battle this weird behavior. Do you second guess anything else you buy? :No? Then why second-guess software modules? Although I am comfortable with the idea I am not comfortable with using inherited code that I do not completely understand. To me, it sounds like we need some standards that *thoroughly* describe the nature and characteristics of the inherited code -- a set of engineering specs, if you will. Something that corresponds to the chip vendors data book and fact sheets would probably be the way to go. -- Jerry Gitomer at National Political Resources Inc, Alexandria, VA USA I am apolitical, have no resources, and speak only for myself. Ma Bell (703)683-9090 (UUCP: ...{uupsi,vrdxhq}!pbs!npri6!jerry