Ben Allfree :: Painless Programming

Here’s a general concept that came out of a recent discussion I was having with a developer. He published an open source tool that had what was, in my opinion, the worst kind of bug: it lied to me.

An interesting thought exercise is to rank these situations in order of best to worst (already ordered according to my thinking):

a. Program works correctly and says so
b. Program fails and says so
c. Program works correctly but doesn’t say so
d. Program fails but doesn’t say so
e. Program works but says it failed
f. Program fails but says it worked

In this case, I had a situation E. The tool author insisted that I didn’t understand how to use his tool. I did understand in this case, but regardless, it side-steps the issue that the program lied. (It also brings up how to encapsulate your tools so they can’t be misused).

Notice the last 2 outcomes are lying programs. To me those are the worst. Even getting nothing back is better because at least you aren’t biased when you begin to investigate what might have gone wrong.