Re: Question on vector at()
On Mar 18, 10:53 am, Ian Collins <ian-n...@hotmail.com> wrote:
James Kanze wrote:
On Mar 17, 12:33 pm, Juha Nieminen <nos...@thanks.invalid> wrote:
Horrible.
(I have actually had to do this in the past, when developing
programs in a Unix environment using gcc and without gdb or
any other kind of debugger. It was not nice.)
One important point: when there is an error in delivered code,
your first job is to reproduce it in the unit tests. Normally,
if the program is adequately instrumented (logging, etc.), you
should be able to do this uniquely from the log data. And once
you've done it, we fall into the case I first cited, above: the
way the unit test fails pretty much indicates where the error
is. Whatever you do, of course, you do NOT correct an error in
the code until you have a unit test which reveals it.
I couldn't agree more. The test will also guard against the
reintroduction of the same bug.
It is, none the less, standard procedure in every software
development process I've ever seen.
Another standard procedure is to evaluate why the error
propagated so far. What could you have done differently to
ensure that it was caught by code review, or the original unit
tests? Or even, so that the programmer wouldn't have introduced
it in the first place? Any error downstream from development is
indicative of an "error" in the development process.
But of course, you can fix the error in the process after you've
fixed the error in the code, where as you can't fix the error in
the code until you have a unit test case which reveals it.
(Otherwise, how are you sure you've fixed it?)
If more people worked like this, we'd have a lot less buggy
software.
You've heard of the millions of monkeys typing away, and writing
Shakespeare. That's probably an accurate description of the
software development process in a lot of large companies.
--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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