[kwlug-disc] given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow?

[Raul Suarez]

I'll write my thoughts to the original question in a subsequent reply, but I couldn't resist answering Lori.

--- On Fri, 1/8/10, Lori Paniak <ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com> wrote:
> I suspect that the vast majority of bugs in a piece of code
> are found by end-users in the course of normal usage, not by people
> reading source code (has anyone ever *discovered* a bug by reading the
> source?).  If true, then there is no open source advantage for finding
> bugs.  The advantage arrives when it is time to fix the bugs.

Having worked on software development for long enough I can tell you that MOST of the bugs should be found during development.

Accessing the code allows you to do code walk through, code static analysis or profiling and debugging with access to the internal symbols.

Of course many more are found through testing. Here FLOSS also has an advantage when people can test the code repository versions, even at earlier stages of implementation.

Whether people are using that advantage can be argued. I just wanted to refute that most bugs are found by users. That's a terrifying thought.

Raul Suarez

Technology consultant
Software, Hardware and Practices
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http://rarsa.blogspot.com/ 
An eclectic collection of random thoughts



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