This article is interesting in terms of producing useful though / mental discussion, yet on completing that thought I disagree with almost all of it.
- Programs are not like cars. Programs are like cars. They are a manufactured construct created for a specific purpose, which does have relative degrees of correctness.
If I have a car with no wheels, it is not a "correct" car, it is at best a chair. No engine or drivetrain, similiar - not "correct" car. Oddly enough, no seat, possibly still "correct". Hiccuping or jumping behavior, it has a bug, or a glitch.
- Software should be pure logic automata. In many respects I would argue this can be a "bad". Such software can be extremely limited - it does X, no more. Or, it can be very brittle. It does does X1, but if I try X2, it breaks. Software like biology is in many ways better.
I feed my software an apple, it eats it, producing work and waste. I feed my software a steak, similiar. I hand my software a baseball, it throws it. I hand it a football, it does similiar. I hand it an apple, it may eat it or throw it depending on the need.
- Faith healing. This has been a meme since nearly the dawn of computers. "Have you tried restarting it?" Maybe kicking it. Wifi won't work? Bad spirits in your house. I worked with fluid mechanics for years, and many (non-trivial) simulations seemed about as likely to complete due to system noise as they did due to program correctness.
Further, there is a serious ivory tower attitude here towards magical thinking and superstition. Technology shamanism is a very real thing. People gravitate towards it often because it works. Its oddly scientific method. If I have my lucky rabbit foot, the program compiles. If I don't, system crash.
- Programs are not like cars. Programs are like cars. They are a manufactured construct created for a specific purpose, which does have relative degrees of correctness.
If I have a car with no wheels, it is not a "correct" car, it is at best a chair. No engine or drivetrain, similiar - not "correct" car. Oddly enough, no seat, possibly still "correct". Hiccuping or jumping behavior, it has a bug, or a glitch.
- Software should be pure logic automata. In many respects I would argue this can be a "bad". Such software can be extremely limited - it does X, no more. Or, it can be very brittle. It does does X1, but if I try X2, it breaks. Software like biology is in many ways better.
I feed my software an apple, it eats it, producing work and waste. I feed my software a steak, similiar. I hand my software a baseball, it throws it. I hand it a football, it does similiar. I hand it an apple, it may eat it or throw it depending on the need.
- Faith healing. This has been a meme since nearly the dawn of computers. "Have you tried restarting it?" Maybe kicking it. Wifi won't work? Bad spirits in your house. I worked with fluid mechanics for years, and many (non-trivial) simulations seemed about as likely to complete due to system noise as they did due to program correctness.
Further, there is a serious ivory tower attitude here towards magical thinking and superstition. Technology shamanism is a very real thing. People gravitate towards it often because it works. Its oddly scientific method. If I have my lucky rabbit foot, the program compiles. If I don't, system crash.