C Community's Cavalier Attitude On Software Reliability

[Tom Neff]

I think what Bill Wolfe is getting at is this: C and UNIX derive from a
milieu where admitting fallibility is not a sin because the "consumers"
are programmers, whose competence, understanding and goodwill are
assumed; and where explaining bugs up front is considered a plus,
because it saves programmer time later on.

By contrast, "big computer company" tradition emphasizes the *appearance*
of infallibility -- never admit bugs up front because your competition
will eat your lunch.  Instead, pour money into glossy docs that paint
your product as the ultimate in completeness and perfection, *regardless*
of what a bug-filled mess it really is.  Handle the messy end only after
the check clears. :-)

What he appears to be saying is that if C and UNIX want to beat IBM at
its own game, to win in the marketplace despite programmer curses and
muttering, they will have to drop the embarrassing candor and get a
haircut.

This might even be true except the horse is out of the barn.  C and UNIX
have *already* been adopted by all the big computer companies, who are
diligently working to produce infallible-sounding derivatives with
gleaming three-color docs.  So who's left?  Has Bill been reading the
Berkeley manuals and wishing they'd go corporate too?  Dream on; they
have no motivation.