Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Hayes tester fails Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2014 19:53:35 -0500 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 22 Message-ID: References: <2014Jan8.155803@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> NNTP-Posting-Host: CNsg4fVcCsvs3UaOgZtQCw.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:27745 On Wed, 08 Jan 2014 09:58:03 -0500, Anton Ertl wrote: > "Ed" writes: >> Put the buggy routine through the Hayes tester and watch it pass. > > Most people already know this, but just in case you don't: > > "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never > to show their absence!" > > http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra > I like that guy's theories. Yes, if a bug is absent, it's clearly not present, so testing for the presence of the bug won't find that the bug is present, since it clearly hasn't arrived yet. Rod Pemberton