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Re: please coin a term for a lower order bug

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On 01/10/2012 08:52 AM, markspace wrote:
> On 1/9/2012 2:18 PM, Peter Duniho wrote:
>> On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:02:33 -0800, 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?
>>
>> IMHO it's a mistake to classify such bugs as "lower order". Rather, they
>> are simply a different subset of the broader classification of "bug":
>>
>> * "correctness bug" -- affects the actual result
>> * "performance bug" -- affects the efficiency/speed of the code
>> * "maintenance bug" -- affects the readability of the code (makes it more
>> confusing)
>>
>> I don't think there's any need for a whole new term. It's just a matter of
>> applying the appropriate qualifier to the existing term of "bug".
>
>
> Actually, trying to read between Roedy's lines, I think I might know what he
> means by "lower order." "Lower" as in further down the list of things that
> must be done. Stuff that totally breaks your code must be dealt with promptly,
> stuff that's just a little slow can wait and is lower on the list of stuff to do.
>
> However, I'd call that a "priority," and I'd usually associate it with the
> RFC/RFE that describes the bug. That is, priority is something that's
> determined by the organization, and isn't always inherent in the type of bug
> itself. Slow performance might actually be a very important bug, high on the
> to-do list, depending on the organization's over-all goals.
>
>
> RFC priorities I'm used to seeing:
>
> Critical - Test inhibitors. These must be fixed NOW.
>
> High - Customer defects for which there is no work-around. These must be fixed
> before release.
>
> Medium - Customer defects which have a work-around. These may be no-fixed and
> forwarded to customer support. These bugs may also be forwarded to maintenance
> or to the follow up project ("version 2.0").
>
> Low - Noise. These bugs will not be fixed or forwarded.

None of these should be tolerated.  Yes, you triage to assign priority, but as 
an industry we have this attitude that it's OK to have some bugs in a system 
as long as they're "lower-order" enough.  That's stupid.  You may never 
actually getting around to fixing a low-priority bug, but if so that's because 
you've got too many high-priority bugs to have the budget to fix the rest, and 
that's obviously a bad thing.  No bugs are good; none should be tolerated.

If you have a process that creates bugs, you cannot achieve this very 
reasonable and proper goal of zero bugs.  You will never achieve it by being 
better at fixing bugs, IMHO, only by preventing them.  That's where unit tests 
and integration tests (by which I mean all tests that integrate units, such as 
end-to-end tests, functional tests, and so on) come in.  Use these right and 
prevent bugs so that you don't have to make up silly terms like "unimportant 
bug" or "lower-order bug" or "low-priority bug".

You can start by eliminating warnings from your code - they are warning you 
for a reason and should be considered errors.  Use good algorithm design and 
checkpoint your invariants ('assert'!).  Keep code simple and cohesive.  Have 
excellent and complete tests.  Don't make excuses for allowing bugs to live.

You should increase priority on each bug that lasts another release - kind of 
an inverse "tenured generation".

-- 
Lew
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg

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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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