Intuitive Bug-less Software?

Starlover writes "In the latest java.sun.com feature at Sun's Java site, Victoria Livschitz takes on some ideas of Jaron Lanier on how to make software less buggy. She makes a couple of interesting points. First, making software more 'intuitive' for developers will reduce bugs. Second, software should more closely simulate the real world, so we should be expanding the pure object-oriented paradigm to allow for a richer set of basic abstractions -- like processes and conditions. The simple division of structures into hierarchies and collections in software too simple for our needs according to Livschitz. She offers a set of ideas explaining how to get 'there' from here. Comments?"

What you need for bugless code

[Anonymous Coward]

Is bug spray.

Well...

[bobbinFrapples]

First, making software more 'intuitive' for developers will reduce bugs

Feels right.

Not a good idea...

[Leffe]

Writing bugless code is not a good idea, in my opinion, think about it: Debugging is the art of removing bugs, therefore programming is the art of adding bugs.

Writing bugless code would throw the universe upside down and could possibly mean the end of the world!

Moderation Guideline: +3 Funny.

Comments?

[jayhawk88]

I'd say that with buzz-speak like that, she's going to make some CIO very happy someday.

Not my problem anymore.

[Anonymous Coward]

This type of stuff is not a problem for me to worry about anymore. It's India's. Direct me to the nearest auto-mechanic school please. It's time to learn how to fix problems that can put money in my pocket.

The real world is intuitive?

[richmaine]

So she wants to make software more intuitive and wants to make it more like the real world.

Perhaps she should make up her mind. :-)

Re:Three-choice system of logic

[telstar]

"All that would be required is to select the desired output answer, then map it back to the input state. Bingo! We've now got the right question to ask."

• Who knew Alex Trebek read Slashdot?

Re:I'm sure...

[Xenographic]

The real world has software bugs!?

You been experiencing a few too many glitches in the Matrix lately, or something? ;]

Speaking of mistakes...

[pokeyburro]

...it also seemed like she misstated Java's approach as a "sandbag architecture" as opposed to a "sandbox architecture". I keep trying to visualize programmers writing more and more Java code to stave off the inevitable surge of bugs....

Orthogonal...

[pottymouth]

"....especially because I've always thought that the principles of fuzzy logic should be exploited far more widely in software engineering. Still, my quest for the answer to Jaron's question seems to yield ideas orthogonal to his own. "

I fear people that talk like this. It makes me wonder if they go home at night and plug themselves into something.....

Being sandbagged by java?

[The Slashdolt]

"The constant security-related problems associated with Microsoft's products are due to its fundamental platform architecture. Java technology, in contrast, enjoys exceptional immunity to viruses because of its sandbag architecture."

I think she means sandbox architecture [javaworld.com]

...and the wheel turns

[GSVNoFixedAbode]

"and more closely simulate and resemble the real world". Hey, I know! How about a COmmon Business-Oriented Language? We could call it COBOL perhaps.

Re:Test?

[Cranx]

I agree everyone should try it. Rather than argue about whether it saves time or wastes time, everyone should start writing unit tests for every project before you begin coding it, give it a couple years, then decide whether it's worth it or not.

Re:I'd rather have...

[pompousjerk]

Heh heh, yeah, right.

Right now I am in a Computer Science program. I have had the pleasure to see:

• Students brag about their 400+ line recursive routine that they finally got working
• Students that hate Linux/BSD/Solaris because "you have to use the command line"
• Students exclaim, "It compiles!", as if it was a significant milestone in the development of the program (which, to them, I guess it is)
• Students get confused when '.' is not in their $PATH
• Professors taking advantage of having '.' in their $PATH
• Students that love Visual Basic because you can "just drag and drop!"

I don't think the whole proper education thing is going to happen any time soon.

Re:I found it to be interesting

[ajs]

Lots of shameless plugs, yes, but look at what's being advocated:

* More intuitive
* More inclusive
* Pattern recognition vs. "yes/no" type logic

Ah... ok, let's turn those 90 degrees:

* More context-aware
* There's more than one way to do it
* Logic using higher order comparison such as regular expressions and grammars

Hmmm... Perl anyone? ;-)

Perl is universally panned by people who don't use it for being "opaque", and yet that opacity is the result of all three of the above, and CPAN is a monumental testiment to the value of those features in terms of large-scale software engineering.

If your opinion of dollar-signs is so valuable to you that you can't see the value in 4GB of source code sitting at your fingertips, then I direct you to the nearest Java tutorial....

Re:Jaron Who?

[DangerSteel]

You need to give the man the respect due him. After all, he has a REALLY low ICQ number !

Re:I'd rather have...

[Jeremi]

Don't forget

• Slightly more experienced CS students acting condescending and superior to the newbies, because their own newbie days are 18 months behind them.

Re:Well...

[cybermace5]

I once had a teacher whose recurring theme, loudly stated in every applicable situation plus several more, was that "INTUITION SUCKS!!!"

I never did get around to asking him how he knew that, or if it was kind of a gut feeling he had.

Agreed, but for this reason...

[DumbSwede]

I write bug free code, but then put in a bug or two that only I know about, so as not to be an affront to the glory and perfection of Allah.

Let's not Ignore the Livschitz.

[barryfandango]

"Livschitz grew up in Lithuania, where she was the women's chess champion and a National Chess Master in 1988 -- the same year in which she won the prestigious Russian national junior mathematical competition."

She's the real story here. I think I'm in love.

Re:Well...

[dubious9]

Perhaps he was refering to the adage that the only intuitive interface is the nipple. Nipple=intuition. What does one do on nipple? Suck. Therefore intuition sucks. Or maybe he was a boob man.

Star Trek

[Unnngh!]

When I see something like this, I am inevitably reminded of Star Trek. Their computers just work. They don't have problems unless they are acted upon by some outside force, generally resulting in physical damage. They are intuitive for the users.

Even the tech gurus on Star Trek can reprogram most computer problems in minutes, or at the outside, in a day or two. This would appear to be functional programming, as mentioned earlier in the article. I've never heard Jordi complain about referencing a null pointer anywhere.

In short, the answer is Star Trek. Sun, Microsoft, IBM, and the rest just needs to get off their asses and deliver whatever programming language was used on the Enterprise! Damn the bureaucrats, damn them all!

Re:The secret to bug free code...

[HD Webdev]

is to _test_ your code.

...against the business requirements.

True. It's always going to be some sort of combination of 'need it yesterday', 'soon', 'works pretty good', or 'handles fatal exceptions exceptionally well'.

Re:Sorry, but I hate Perl

[smoking2000]

If you want bondage languages that force bad programs to be minimally debuggable, use Python, but don't expect to be as productive in a language that forces you to think in some particular way about your problem.

I tried to use Python, but perl complained:

Can't locate Python.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/lib/perl/5.6.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.6.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at -e line 1. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at -e line 1.