Defects are not the fault of programmers • Hacker News Board

Re: Defects are not the fault of programmers

#41

Post by inanutshellus » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 2:45 PM UTC

wool_gather wrote: post #32

inanutshellus wrote: post #7

Once you've introduced the concept of "blame" for a situation it's hard to get out of it. It's unhealthy, IMO. Instead, I prefer to focus forward on what to do next and how to avoid this particular issue again... and simply move on.

Well, you can't know how to avoid it until you know how you got into it. Which is one form of "blame" -- though I would agree it's more productive not to direct it at a person , and instead blame features of the situation .

You're still putting the concept of "blame" into the water.

Blaming in the context of a situation is called "an excuse", and it's still defensive.

It's pretty nuanced after this though. If folk are defensive when a problem happens ("I don't know how this happened"="it wasn't me"), you have a blame culture.

So how does one figure out what happened without someone jumping on the blame-sword (or run screaming from it)? I haven't quite figured out the answer to that question, but one thing that helps is only ask what happened if it's truly a mystery that must be solved. If it was human error, quietly move on.

Re: Defects are not the fault of programmers

#42

Post by gowld » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

eindiran wrote: post #34

gowld wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edge cases are common. Corner cases are rare.

I'm not familiar with this distinction: what is the difference you're pointing to here?

Take a look at polytope. Edges are easier to hit than corners. If you start in a random place and move in any direction, you will eventually hit an edge. But you might never hit a corner.

Re: Defects are not the fault of programmers

#43

Post by eindiran » Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 10:24 PM UTC

eindiran wrote: post #34

gowld wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edge cases are common. Corner cases are rare.

I'm not familiar with this distinction: what is the difference you're pointing to here?

In case anyone was wondering the actual definitions:

An edge case is a problem or situation that occurs only at an extreme (maximum or minimum) operating parameter. For example, a stereo speaker might noticeably distort audio when played at maximum volume, even in the absence of any other extreme setting or condition. [0]

A corner case (or pathological case) involves a problem or situation that occurs only outside of normal operating parameters—specifically one that manifests itself when multiple environmental variables or conditions are simultaneously at extreme levels, even though each parameter is within the specified range for that parameter. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_case

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corner_case