Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!mcnc!duke!apte
From: apte@duke.cs.duke.edu (jitendra apte)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Is it Art or is it Engineering
Message-ID: <11059@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 88 17:59:53 GMT
References: <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: apte@duke.UUCP (jitendra apte)
Organization: Duke University, Durham NC
Lines: 16

In article <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes
>
>Is there anything in programming that is analogous to
>the term "tolerance" in engineering?
>

how about the following :

designing and writing programs that are expected to yield acceptable results
most of the time, but not guaranteeing good results for all possible inputs.
a typical attitude while  writing programs to solve problems which are known
to have very time consuming exact solutions, but which can probably be solved
to near exctness using heuristic methods. (np problems and the more expensive
p problems).

jitendra apte.