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Benefits of oil change are also invisible until it’s too late, yet no one has problems understanding it. Can we learn something from that field, maybe? I’m gras

by DenisM 7y ago

Benefits of oil change are also invisible until it’s too late, yet no one has problems understanding it. Can we learn something from that field, maybe? I’m grasping at straws here.

yibg 7y ago
But the benefits (and downsides) of doing or not doing an oil change can be measured. You can run tests on engines that skips or delays oil changes and see what the effects are and measure them in dollar amounts. Like cost to replace / repair the engine prematurely. Sure YMMV but you can get a rough estimate. What is the rough cost in dollar amount if I don’t do this refactor?
thrower123 7y ago
Code is too reliable, in many cases. If you don't do your 100 and 500 hour PMs and change the fluids on a bulldozer, then it will pretty reliably break down or render itself into a smoking million dollar chunk of scrap iron, in spectacular and unavoidable fashion. Software can limp along broken without anyone noticing for far longer.
maerF0x0 7y ago
One of the reasons that oil can more or less easily be validated is that there is a spec to the engine and the spec can be show to be invalidated when oil is not used. Directly measured, the engine cylinder walls will grow wider and compression will be lost. Indirectly we can do an oil analysis and see the metals deposited. One of the reasons we do not understand the cost of low internal quality code is that we do not know the "spec". Defect rates is one proxy measurement, but it's hard to know if it's just "bad programming" or "bad internal code quality" ...
- celticmusic 7y ago
  > One of the reasons that oil can more or less easily be validated is that there is a spec to the engine and the spec can be show to be invalidated when oil is not used. no, it's because the engine will seize and fail if you don't change the oil, and it's readily apparent to everyone when it happens.

by DenisM 7y ago

Benefits of oil change are also invisible until it’s too late, yet no one has problems understanding it. Can we learn something from that field, maybe? I’m grasping at straws here.

yibg 7y ago

But the benefits (and downsides) of doing or not doing an oil change can be measured. You can run tests on engines that skips or delays oil changes and see what the effects are and measure them in dollar amounts. Like cost to replace / repair the engine prematurely. Sure YMMV but you can get a rough estimate. What is the rough cost in dollar amount if I don’t do this refactor?

thrower123 7y ago

Code is too reliable, in many cases. If you don't do your 100 and 500 hour PMs and change the fluids on a bulldozer, then it will pretty reliably break down or render itself into a smoking million dollar chunk of scrap iron, in spectacular and unavoidable fashion. Software can limp along broken without anyone noticing for far longer.

maerF0x0 7y ago

One of the reasons that oil can more or less easily be validated is that there is a spec to the engine and the spec can be show to be invalidated when oil is not used. Directly measured, the engine cylinder walls will grow wider and compression will be lost. Indirectly we can do an oil analysis and see the metals deposited. One of the reasons we do not understand the cost of low internal quality code is that we do not know the "spec". Defect rates is one proxy measurement, but it's hard to know if it's just "bad programming" or "bad internal code quality" ...

celticmusic 7y ago
> One of the reasons that oil can more or less easily be validated is that there is a spec to the engine and the spec can be show to be invalidated when oil is not used. no, it's because the engine will seize and fail if you don't change the oil, and it's readily apparent to everyone when it happens.