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What logically follows from the two statements below: 1. "Automated tests are software" 2. "all software tends to have bugs"
by chungleong 7y ago
What logically follows from the two statements below:
1. "Automated tests are software"
2. "all software tends to have bugs"
- chriswarbo 7y agoIt follows that automated tests tend to have bugs. So what? That doesn't at all imply that we shouldn't use them. You're presumably using a whole heap of software to post your comments, all of which will tend to have bugs; yet you still find it useful. Boolean logic rarely captures the nuances of real-world situations, and the "rounding errors" accumulate at each step of such arguments, which can lead to some silly (but logically consistent) outcomes. I think you've fallen victim to this here. In a similar way, it's a false dichotomy to think of software as being either buggy xor perfect; of testing (or any other QA) as proving brokenness xor correctness; or to consider bugginess as implying uselessness. Notice that I framed things in terms of confidence (in a Bayesian sense) and costs; not absolutes.