Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!sunybcs!sher
From: sher@sunybcs.uucp (David Sher)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <6158@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Oct-87 14:40:18 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.6158
Posted: Wed Oct 28 14:40:18 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Oct-87 09:01:43 EST
References: <3389@uw-june.UUCP> <3243@ames.arpa>
Sender: nobody@sunybcs.UUCP
Reply-To: sher@gort.UUCP (David Sher)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 11
Keywords: human factors, interfaces

I once speant several days searching some intense numeric code for a 
bug.  I finally found that the bug wasn't in the code at all but in
the driving shell script.  A 1 had been replaced by an l and the
code used atof to parse its arguments so instead of reading
1.5 it read 0.  I guess I should have used sscanf(argv[1],"%d",&foo);
and checked the return value but I was lazy, and boy did I pay for it.
Have I drifted from the topic?
-David Sher

-David Sher
ARPA: sher@cs.buffalo.edu	BITNET: sher@sunybcs
UUCP: {rutgers,ames,boulder,decvax}!sunybcs!sher