Standards (was Re: indentation: enough already!)

[Mark W. Eichin]

In article <3245 at ingr.com.> crossgl at ingr.UUCP (Gordon Cross) writes:
>What should they care so long as it works??!!!  As an end user of something

reply from Doug Gwyn <gwyn at brl.arpa> <9190 at smoke.BRL.MIL>
>>No, it doesn't; it has bugs.  What should the customer do if one of the
>>bugs simply HAS to be fixed?  Remember that in the government's case, it
>>owns the deliverables (source code, etc.) and is responsible for fixing

Excellent case in point: the recent Internet Breakins, specifically
the ``ftp bug''. A bug that **HAS** to be fixed, even though the
program ``works'' -- readable source makes it easier to find and
squash these problems in a situation where *real time* matters.
``ftpd'' evolved over many years, and thus a number of people have had
to understand it, likewise ``sendmail'' -- the code really *has* to be
clear and readable or it isn't good enough (and it probably isn't
portable enough either :-( )

				Mark Eichin
			<eichin at athena.mit.edu>
		SIPB Member & Project Athena ``Watchmaker''