Gettiers in software engineering (2019)

(jsomers.net)

303 points FigurativeVoid | 2 comments | 14 Oct 24 18:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.42s | source

Show context

hamandcheese ◴[14 Oct 24 22:49 UTC] No.41843012[source]▶

I believe that schrodinger's cat also applies to software bugs. Every time I go looking, I find bugs that I don't believe existed until I observed them.

replies(1): >>41844021 #

1. FigurativeVoid ◴[15 Oct 24 01:25 UTC] No.41844021[source]▶

>>41843012 #

I have similar belief, but only when it comes to bugs that make me look foolish.

The more likely a bug is to make me look dumb, it will only appear as soon as I ask for help.

replies(1): >>41845514 #

2. orbisvicis ◴[15 Oct 24 06:23 UTC] No.41845514[source]▶

>>41844021 (TP) #

The bugs that always disappear when I try to demonstrate them to others - my favorite. Reminds me of the "Tom Knight and the Lisp Machine" koan. This is largely true, but I remember a failing piece of authentication hardware that I didn't understand but was convinced was failing. Every time I called someone over it would work, so I couldn't get it replaced. Eventually the failure rate got so high that everyone agreed the damn thing had failed, "dead as a brick". But until then I was SoL. What are the chances that something 99% towards "dead as a brick" would always work around a superior.

↑