Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!rcj@moss.ATT.COM
From: rcj@moss.ATT.COM
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: bugs
Message-ID: <36387@clyde.ATT.COM>
Date: 14 Nov 88 17:42:56 GMT
References: <4648@bsu-cs.UUCP> <36085@clyde.ATT.COM> <4670@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Sender: bkc@clyde.ATT.COM
Reply-To: rcj@moss.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 20

In article <4670@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
}If I find some shortcomings (ahem) in a submission, which of the
}following two alternatives is better?
}
}-- posting it and simply documenting bugs that I find
}
}-- or not posting it and sending feedback to the author and waiting for
}him to either fix it or ask me to go ahead and post anyway

My vote -- send it back.  Buggy programs can cause serious damage;
usually in the form of data loss.  They can also waste thousands of
dollars in phone charges to people downloading useless software.

Just because something is free doesn't mean its most basic functions
shouldn't be tested.  Rahul, if you can find bugs in just a cursory
examination/run of a program, it obviously has not been tested well
enough to inflict on the world.

Curtis Jackson	-- att!moss!rcj  201-386-6409
"The cardinal rule of skydiving and ripcords:  When in doubt, whip it out!"