Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Implications of recent virus (Trojan Horse) attack
Message-ID: <25987@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 13 Nov 88 17:52:20 GMT
References: <1698@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <2151@ficc.uu.net> <8845@smoke.BRL.MIL> <8562@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> <772@stolaf.UUCP>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Distribution: na
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 29

In article <772@stolaf.UUCP> mike@wheaties.ai.mit.edu writes:
|In article <8562@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (John F. Haugh II) writes:
|>Do you *really* trust college students to write real software?  If so, you
|>must have never attended a university similiar to the one I graduated from.

Actually, those students who produce code often do a better job than
'professionals', mostly because they have the time to do it right.
Professionally written software is most often pushed out the door,
which isn't likely to help its quality.  I could cite examples of
this, but you have probably seen it as often as I have anyway.

Another thing that happens with professionally produced software is
the author deliberately making it hard to follow (read: modify and
debug) in order to ensure his (her) job security (kind of reminds me
of Bush picking Quayle, come to think of it :-).  Again, not
something a student, writing on his own, is likely to do.

Would I trust student-written code?  You bet your life I would, but
only after giving it a little personal attention, something that
should always be done anyway.

BTW, I would be interested in knowing what exactly constitutes a
"student".  A good many people I know, myself included, write things
professionally as well as go to school.  Should you only trust those
things I write while I'm at work?  The questions could go on and
on....

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu