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Re: comparing two test files

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On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:25:12 -0800, Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
wrote:

>On 12/23/2011 9:18 AM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:

[snip]

>>       How did you come up with that example?  It is very good.  The
>> problem with cooking up examples like that is that one already knows
>> what the problem is so any "detective work" is suspect.
>
>I took a common student problem that needs a little attention to detail,
>and wrote a Java implementation as fast as I could type, making minimal
>changes to fix compile-time errors. I then went straight to test and
>debug, writing up the debug steps as I went along, without doing any
>desk checking.
>
>Normally, my programming keystroke rate is a lot slower than my raw
>typing rate. Suppressing self-checking and thinking about details in
>favor of typing speed made a good collection of mistakes statistically
>likely, but without giving me any knowledge of what the mistakes were.
>
>I hoped the result would be a more realistic example and debug process
>than if I had consciously inserted errors in an otherwise carefully
>written program, and then pretended to find them.

     It is more reasonable that consciously inserting errors since you
actually did not design the errors.  You appear to have hit some good
ones, too.  That you had more than one is even better, because it
helps make the point that one should not stop after finding the first
error.

     I have bookmarked the page, and I will likely point beginners to
it.  It really is a good treatment.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

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comparing two test files ruds <rudranee@gmail.com> - 2011-12-23 00:45 -0800
  Re: comparing two test files Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2011-12-23 05:27 -0500
    Re: comparing two test files Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2011-12-23 06:03 -0500
  Re: comparing two test files Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-12-23 06:37 -0800
    Re: comparing two test files Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-12-23 09:18 -0800
      Re: comparing two test files Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-12-23 10:25 -0800
        Re: comparing two test files Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-12-23 11:13 -0800
          Re: comparing two test files Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-12-23 11:45 -0800
  Re: comparing two test files markspace <-@.> - 2011-12-23 07:50 -0800

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