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You think Donald Knuth has made a career for himself out of being able to right 'bug free code'? Really? He's made a career for himself out of being an extrem
by gjm11 15y ago
You think Donald Knuth has made a career for himself out of being able to right 'bug free code'?
Really?
He's made a career for himself out of being an extremely creative computer scientist and writing outstandingly scholarly books about programming. Far from marketing himself as producing bug-free code, he has published articles entirely devoted to the history of bugs found in his software.
(As for the bits that turn TeX into LaTeX, no one is making a career out of claiming that they are bug free -- for the simple reason that no one thinks they are.)
- roel_v 15y agoOf course not, it's hyperbole to illustrate the point. In the specific cases of Qmail and TeX, the 'bug free' aspect of it however is overblown and a marketing gimmick. It's not that hard (given enough time) to make something bug free, it's a whole different thing when the software needs to evolve at the same time to meet the (changing and expanding) requirements of actual users.
- RBerenguel 15y agoTeX wasn't born in a night and suddenly appear in binary form. Knuth worked a hell lot to make it clean, make it work and make it fast. At least, for when he wrote it. Go and read The TeXbook
- Joeri 15y agoAre you implying that qmail and tex don't have actual users? The point those packages make is that some problems can have a solution that lasts years or decades instead of mere months.
- roel_v 15y agoHow many people are using just TeX, and how many just qmail in production systems (i.e., not on their local workstation)? Very few.
- EdiX 15y agoActually, the reason for not evolving/rewriting TeX is so that old documents can be typeset and produce the same results. I find that an appealing goal.