Xref: utzoo comp.lang.misc:7678 comp.object:3415 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!herald.usask.ca!alberta!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!milton!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.object Subject: Re: Software "Engineers" Message-ID: Date: 30 Apr 91 14:39:28 GMT References: <1991Apr27.184424.7019@cl.cam.ac.uk> Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK. Lines: 23 nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes: > When you use a well-engineered product, you don't notice its design; it just > does what you want it to do. When things go badly wrong, it fails gracefully > and avoids fatal side-effects. > > How many well-engineered items of software do you know about? Excluding the ones I wrote myself? :-) I'm tempted to say "X Windows" to see whether the scream will carry from the Computer Lab to here. Ironically enough, I tried to send a response by mail. On each of the four attempts the mail software bombed out, crashing Windows and forcing me to re-boot the machine. Clearly we have a long way to go. mathew -- mathew - mathew@mantis.co.uk or mcsun!ukc!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew