Unlimited software warranties

[Alex Martelli]

I agree with Dick Dunn's lament on c.u.sysv386 - there is a "feature
frenzy" around, products are sold mostly on feechurs, secondly on
time-to-market, thirdly on price, and QUALITY just does not seem to be
on the list.  I am trying to redirect the discussion to c.s-e, because
it does not really seem peculiarly relevant to the world of 386 Unices:
I estimate that I spend between 25% and 40% of my time fighting with
bugs, BAD bugs, in compilers on all sorts of workstations, in debuggers,
in linkers, in system libraries, in RDBMS's, in utilities of all
descriptions... I'm TIRED! of this, but it does not seem to be getting
any better as time goes on: everything keeps getting faster and shinier
and richer - but quality stays low.  I do NOT need umpteen extensions to
language standards, which I will NOT use anyway since I want to write
PORTABLE software; I do NOT need compilers pushing the envelope in
hyperdimensional crosseverything optimization for a 7.2% speedup, when
the hardware itself is yearly doubling in performance; I do NOT need
linkers that will rearrange my code, inline called-once procedures,
and make coffee in the morning; I DO need BUG-FREE, *STABLE* software
tools, an ar that will not silently munge my archive if it's over 512
entries, a dbx that won't throw me into a wild goose chase by showing
the WRONG address for a symbol, a vi that won't dump core when i hit
^D to cancel autoindent and enter some text...

What can be done about it?  I believe there is a whole shift in emphasis
needed throughout the market: magazines and consulting organization 
should put benchmarks and feechur-lists into the second tier and start
ferreting around for BUGS; customers should insist on followup releases
to make software SOLID, rather than add chrome (such followups are 
today ignored as "just a bug-fix release"...); marketing teams should
figure out a way to sell based on QUALITY - "our product does NOT
dump core, it does NOT munge your data, it does NOT show wrong 
results"... CAN it really be so hard as all that???  In other markets,
after all, there ARE at least a portion of suppliers that do well by
selling high-quality, durable goods, where the buyer can rely on their
not breaking unexpectedly, rather than the "latest fads"; why, even in
our own 'hardware' field there are such markets.  Why not in sw too?

-- 
Alex Martelli - (home snailmail:) v. Barontini 27, 40138 Bologna, ITALIA
Email: (work:) martelli at cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex at am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only), Fidonet: 332/401.3 (home only).