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Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug

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On 12-01-10 08:54 AM, Eric Sosman wrote:
> On 1/10/2012 5:45 AM, Arved Sandstrom wrote:
>> On 12-01-09 10:26 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
>>> On 1/9/2012 5:02 PM, Roedy Green wrote:
>>>> What would you call a flaw in a program that had no effect on the
>>>> results, but needlessly made the program slower or confusing?
>>>
>>>      Call them "bugs."  Sub-classification as "venial bugs" and
>>> "mortal bugs" just reveals the classifier's lack of imagination.
>>>
>> True. But until this slow or confusing behaviour violated a business or
>> technical requirement it's no bug at all. After all, what is "slow"? And
>> "confusing" to who?
> 
>     The fact that the program is being called slow and confusing
> demonstrates that it is neither "fast enough" nor "clear enough."
> If the program were satisfactory, nobody would be complaining --
> but they are complaining, ergo the program does not meet expectations.

Who's "they"? I run into this situation often enough, particularly with
respect to application performance. 9 times out of 10 the people who
complain about slowness haven't measured the current performance,
haven't any baseline data for the performance of any previous versions,
and there are zero business/technical requirements that define target
performance. In the absence of all that the complaint is entirely
subjective, and there is no defect.

I'd be surprised if _you_ set out to "improve" performance without a
specified, agreed target at a minimum.

As for "confusing", if it's a trained user of the program who's
complaining, for some common-sense value of "trained", then maybe I'll
take the complaint seriously. "Trained" to me means that the program
_documentation_ is adequate or better, that the user is familiar with
it, and that if proper operation of the program also requires other
knowledge (like that of business processes, or of some subject, or of
some professional occupation) that the user possesses that knowledge.

I've seen way too many people complain that something is "confusing"
about an application where they lack any of these prerequisites. I'm
sorry, but they can go suck eggs until they do their bit first.

In a more active way you take care of "confusing" by getting user
interfaces (command line, graphical etc) and use cases and storylines
out in front of the user community as soon as possible. This should
happen in requirements at the latest. That's where the prospective users
have their opportunity to eliminate the "confusing" bits.

>     Note that some bugs are addressed by means other than changing
> the code.  We might, for example, relabel the program as "Only for
> use on big honkin' screamerboxen" or "Not for use by addlepated
> nitwits."  That is, sometimes the failure to fulfill expectations
> is remedied by better control of the expectations.  Nonetheless, it's
> a bug until and unless *something* is done.

I'll agree that it could be viewed as a requirements defect, sure. OTOH,
if the business signed off on the requirements documents, it's really a
change request.

>     (The software purveyors' pusillanimous retreat behing "Not
> warrantied for any particular use whatsoever" is beneath contempt.)
> 
I agree. But I don't think we're talking about that here. I know I'm not.

AHS
-- 
...wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their
own government...
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1789

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please coin a term for a lower order bug Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-09 14:02 -0800
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-01-09 14:18 -0800
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> - 2012-01-10 09:18 +0000
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2012-01-10 11:46 -0500
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-01-10 16:00 -0500
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug markspace <-@.> - 2012-01-10 13:38 -0800
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-10 15:14 -0800
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-01-10 18:01 -0800
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug markspace <-@.> - 2012-01-10 08:52 -0800
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-10 17:52 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-01-10 19:44 -0800
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-10 20:35 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-11 10:54 -0800
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Ian Pilcher <arequipeno@gmail.com> - 2012-01-09 17:29 -0600
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-01-09 21:26 -0500
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-01-10 02:43 +0000
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-10 07:01 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-01-11 03:23 -0600
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Wanja Gayk <brixomatic@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-15 13:21 +0100
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-01-15 08:39 -0500
            Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-01-15 06:39 -0800
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-01-10 06:45 -0400
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-01-10 07:54 -0500
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-10 07:13 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-01-10 18:17 -0400
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-10 15:23 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-01-11 03:30 -0600
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-01-11 08:08 -0500
            Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-01-11 14:38 -0600
              Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-11 15:48 -0800
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-11 11:01 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-01-12 01:45 +0000
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-11 18:05 -0800
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2012-01-10 09:52 -0700
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug markspace <-@.> - 2012-01-10 09:51 -0800
      Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-10 18:08 -0800
        Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-10 19:30 -0800
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-10 22:11 -0800
            Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-11 15:52 -0800
          Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2012-01-11 13:38 -0700
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-01-10 14:05 -0500
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug v_borchert@despammed.com (Volker Borchert) - 2012-01-11 20:59 +0000
    Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-01-11 15:53 -0800
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Fredrik Jonson <fredrik@jonson.org> - 2012-01-12 06:59 +0000
  Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug Wanja Gayk <brixomatic@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-15 12:45 +0100

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