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From: goldfain@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Is Computer Science Science?
Message-ID: <8300004@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sat, 12-Sep-87 17:45:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: osiris.8300004
Posted: Sat Sep 12 17:45:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Sep-87 21:42:22 EDT
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Nf-From: osiris.cso.uiuc.edu!goldfain    Sep 12 16:45:00 1987


THERE ARE SOME RULES OF DESIGN, AS WELL, SUCH AS:
"Garbage In --> Garbage Out."
"If the user doesn't know what he/she/they want, or what computers in general
can or can't do with the current technology, then they're not going to like
the program you write for them."
"You can't build an expert system that is better than your human experts,
although perhaps more reliable."

RULES OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT:
"No programmer, in the history of the trade, has yet underestimated the time
it will take to get a working program."
"It takes 90% of the time to do the first 90% of the job, and the other 90%
of the time to do the last 10% of the job."

IN SPITE OF RESEARCH, THE FOLLOWING ARE TENETS OF THE CURRENT WORKPLACE:
"There is no such thing as real computer security."
"There is always one more bug."

johnson's previous posting involved some hard, scientific/mathematical laws.
These are much looser.  Possibly someday, we will feel differently about them,
but they are definitely there today.