Secure Coding mailing list archives
Re: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...)
From: der Mouse <mouse () Rodents Montreal QC CA>
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 21:11:29 +0000
["David Crocker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, replying to me]
Any nontrivial piece of software has bugs.No, there are some nontrivial pieces of software in which bugs have never been found and there is no reason to believe any exist.
"Never been found" doesn't mean they don't exist. And whether there is no reason to believe any exist is a matter of opinion, not fact; I certainly have reason to believe at last one bug exists, reason which you do not see as being such a reason.
I'm thinking here of safety-critical software developed using formal specification, verified refinement and automatic code generation,
If the english for the program is a "formal specification", then that is the appropriate measure of size and that is where I would expect bugs to exist.
"The 115 000 lines specification
Even if the translator that compiles this specification to machine code is perfect - which itself is something I question - I do not believe humans can generate over a hundred thousand lines of anything, including formal specifications, without bugs. You choose to believe otherwise. For the sake of everyone whose safety depends on the result, I hope you're right - but I can't make myself believe it. /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML [EMAIL PROTECTED] / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
Current thread:
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about virii on VMS...), (continued)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about virii on VMS...) David Crocker (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about virii on VMS...) Andreas Saurwein (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...) David Crocker (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...) Andreas Saurwein (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...) David Crocker (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software Andreas Saurwein (Feb 05)
- RE: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about virii on VMS...) David Crocker (Feb 05)
- Re: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...) der Mouse (Feb 05)
- Re: (whimsy) Bug-free software Terrence Enger (Feb 06)
- RE: (whimsy) Bug-free software David Crocker (Feb 06)
- RE: (whimsy) Bug-free software Alun Jones (Feb 07)
- Re: Bug-free software (was: Re rant about viruses on VMS...) der Mouse (Feb 05)