Second law: The complexity barrier. Software complexity (and therefore that of bugs) grows to the limits of our ability to manage that complexity. Boris Beizer More Quotes by Boris Beizer More Quotes From Boris Beizer Testing proves a programmer’s failure. Debugging is the programmer’s vindication. Boris Beizer testing debugging prove A test that reveals a bug has succeeded, not failed. Boris Beizer bugs tests A good threat is worth a thousand tests. Boris Beizer programming bugs tests A design remedy that prevents bugs is always preferable to a test method that discovers them. Boris Beizer bugs design tests More than the act of testing, the act of designing tests is one of the best bug preventers known. Boris Beizer bugs design tests If you can't test it, don't build it. If you don't test it, rip it out. Boris Beizer rip bugs tests Software never was perfect and won't get perfect. But is that a license to create garbage? The missing ingredient is our reluctance to quantify quality. Boris Beizer quality missing perfect First law: The pesticide paradox. Every method you use to prevent or find bugs leaves a residue of subtler bugs against which those methods are ineffective. Boris Beizer pesticides use law One of the saddest sights to me has always been a human at a keyboard doing something by hand that could be automated. It's sad but hilarious. Boris Beizer keyboards sight hands Extra features were once considered desirable. We now recognize that 'free' features are rarely free. Any increase in generality that does not contribute to reliability, modularity, maintainability, and robustness should be suspected. Boris Beizer reliability increase doe Bugs lurk in corners and congregate at boundaries. Boris Beizer programming bugs boundaries If the objective of testing were to prove that a program is free of bugs, then not only would testing be practically impossible, but it would also be theoretically impossible. Boris Beizer program bugs impossible In programming, it’s often the buts in the specification that kill you. Boris Beizer specifications programming
