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Re: Access a private variable?
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Re: Access a private variable?


  • Subject: Re: Access a private variable?
  • From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:41:03 -0700

On Jul 17, 2005, at 8:26 PM, Ian Joyner wrote:

The vague term 'bug' has a bit of history, part of which I know. It is attributed to Admiral Grace Hopper (one of the pioneers of COBOL) who had to find a problem in a computer in 1945. When she tracked it down, a moth had flown into the machine causing it to malfunction. When her manager asked her what she had been doing, she responded "debugging the machine". Said moth is now on display in the Smithsonian. It does seem that she said this because the term 'bug' was already in use.

I always thought that story was apocryphal.


Now Bertrand Meyer in OOSC seeks to clarify the term (OOSC is one of the clearest books on software development ever written). Meyer admits that the term 'bug' is in widespread use because it is reasonably descriptive. Edsgar Dijkstra was less forgiving in a paper published in ACM's SIGCSE (Computer Science Education) in about 1987 or 88 (buried in my store room somewhere). Dijkstra sees it as a dishonest term which software engineers use to make it seem as if a software problem was not due to design or implementation, but to the fact that something physical (and beyond their control) has crept into the works, like Hopper's moth.

It's a thought provoking area, and of course in software we are dealing with the entirely abstract in which we create supposedly perfect worlds – part of the power of software, unlike hardware which can go worng (like in Westworld). I still use the term bug as a bit of descriptive language, but always with some reservations.

So don't beat each other up when talking about bugs – it is a buggy term in itself, but it does help to understand if a problem is due to poor design or poor implementation.

:-D  Now that is funny.  The English language has a bug: the word "bug".


One phrase I dislike which is coming into use (OK I can only think of one company that uses it) is 'Service Pack' which has the implication that a computer is like a car or other mechanical device, which has to be oiled to keep it running, and that you have to apply this service pack in order to be a responsible owner to stop things from deteriorating. Well the problems were already built into the system, and so I'd be much happier with 'bug fix release' or at least 'update', rather than trying to pretend that a 'service pack' release is something other that the vendor's fault.

One more signpost on the road to the Orwellian future.... ;-)


Every program can be boiled down to one line - run (or double click), which of course is a high-level abstraction. Also subclasses are used to (stepwise) refine or extend a parent – subclassing is not usually recommended as a 'bug fix' mechanism.

Yes, subclassing is usually highly ineffective as a bug fixing mechanism, though sometimes it is your only choice.

I'm still pining for the days of categories and poseAs.  :-)


sacha


-- Sacha Michel Mallais - Big Kahuna Global Village Consulting Inc.: http://www.global-village.net/ Blessed is the WO-geek, for he shall inherit from NSEarth (Jobs 3:14)

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References: 
 >Access a private variable? (From: Alex Johnson <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Alex Johnson <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Robert Walker <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Robert Walker <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Robert Walker <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Sacha Mallais <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Access a private variable? (From: Ian Joyner <email@hidden>)

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