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> If it works within specs it is bug free. No, it's functional. If it has bugs, it's not bug-free. By definition.

fidotron 3y ago
What would it mean to be bug free then? To quote a former marketing guy “it should work out what the user intends to do and do it”?
- digging 3y ago
  To have no bugs, which is extremely unlikely for a program of any real complexity. Having bugs, and being functional, are fairly self-explanatory and independent of each other. No need to try to conflate them. Not sure what your quote is supposed to mean. That's a textbook example of someone who doesn't understand software at all making laughable requests of their engineers.
  - fidotron 3y ago
    To be bug free we must be able to define what a bug is. So, what is a bug? The reason for that quote is from what you have said a bug would be anything you didn't expect, even if it is consistent or not with the specification as that merely affects if we classify it as functional or not (a classification I profoundly disagree with, obviously). It is simply a negative rephrasing of what the marketing guy said and laughable in the same way.
    - digging 3y ago
      As another commenter pointed out, > One plausible definition is “system deviates from its specification” And that's quite reasonable. So I actually retract my argument. For my own definition, I was considering a bug to be any behavior that the software engineers weren't expecting. Because those can exist invisibly for a long time until they become so bad they become visible. They can also exist for decades without causing any problems to functionality at all.
- ponector 3y ago
  Bug free software means developers would not disclose any information about present bugs in the software they ship to customers. Really bug free commercial software does not exist. And can't exist. There are always bugs which are known but would not be fixed.
tonyarkles 3y ago
Not to get too meta here but… what is your definition of a bug? One plausible definition is “system deviates from its specification”.
- digging 3y ago
  Fair enough. I considered a bug to be any behavior the engineers didn't plan in the code. They have their own specification, in their heads, that is more technical/exact than the business specification. Your definition is also reasonable but it's not what people mean when they say "there's no such thing as bug-free code", because bugs of my definition are almost unavoidable.

What would it mean to be bug free then? To quote a former marketing guy “it should work out what the user intends to do and do it”?

digging 3y ago
To have no bugs, which is extremely unlikely for a program of any real complexity. Having bugs, and being functional, are fairly self-explanatory and independent of each other. No need to try to conflate them. Not sure what your quote is supposed to mean. That's a textbook example of someone who doesn't understand software at all making laughable requests of their engineers.
- fidotron 3y ago
  To be bug free we must be able to define what a bug is. So, what is a bug? The reason for that quote is from what you have said a bug would be anything you didn't expect, even if it is consistent or not with the specification as that merely affects if we classify it as functional or not (a classification I profoundly disagree with, obviously). It is simply a negative rephrasing of what the marketing guy said and laughable in the same way.
  - digging 3y ago
    As another commenter pointed out, > One plausible definition is “system deviates from its specification” And that's quite reasonable. So I actually retract my argument. For my own definition, I was considering a bug to be any behavior that the software engineers weren't expecting. Because those can exist invisibly for a long time until they become so bad they become visible. They can also exist for decades without causing any problems to functionality at all.
ponector 3y ago
Bug free software means developers would not disclose any information about present bugs in the software they ship to customers. Really bug free commercial software does not exist. And can't exist. There are always bugs which are known but would not be fixed.

tonyarkles 3y ago

Not to get too meta here but… what is your definition of a bug? One plausible definition is “system deviates from its specification”.

digging 3y ago
Fair enough. I considered a bug to be any behavior the engineers didn't plan in the code. They have their own specification, in their heads, that is more technical/exact than the business specification. Your definition is also reasonable but it's not what people mean when they say "there's no such thing as bug-free code", because bugs of my definition are almost unavoidable.