3 ms·

"Linus's Law" itself says little about whether or not people will actually look at code. It just says that more people looking is better than fewer people look

by Crito 13y ago

"Linus's Law" itself says little about whether or not people will actually look at code. It just says that more people looking is better than fewer people looking. How much code I have audited, you have audited, ESR has audited, or hell, how much code Paul McCartney has audited, really has little to do with the obvious correctness and banality of the 'law'.

ori_b 13y ago
In other words, your interpretation of "Linus's Law" has no impact on code quality in the real world. Edit: However, since it's meant to imply that in open source, there are people looking at code, I think that the criticisms stand.
- Crito 13y ago
  Yes, in the sense that Crito's Law (coined by me, now) "The bigger the ship, the more freight you can fit in it." has no impact on the real-world ship transport industry. It is obviously true to the point of being banal. It is a pointless statement of uncontroversial fact that provides next to no utility to anybody. It's not even interesting for being a tautology. If I were a particularly objectionable and self-promoting person, then perhaps people might object to Crito's Law whenever it were quoted on shipping forums, but that wouldn't make it incorrect. Nor would my shameless self-promotion make it profound. (Is Crito's Law _precisely_ true? Well no, some large ships are not designed for freight after all... but the general principle is true.)
  - coldtea 13y ago
    You seem to continuously miss the point he makes. "Many eyes make bugs shallower" is indeed true and a tautology. The way ESR meant it, it's merely BS. He meant is as in: "because open source code is available for everybody to see, many people look at it, and so bugs are found more easily". In the context it was said, it was meant as a factual observation about what GOES ON in OSS, not merely as a trite theoritical description about many eyes being better. So, people are arguing against that, not against the idea that if more people ACTUALLY look, they will find more bugs. The case is, very few people look at code. In some cases, even for extremely widely used software by millions of OSS users, even less people than the people paid to look at a particular proprietary software look at the code. Heck, Gtk, the basis of most Linux desktops, had in the latest years like 1-developer really working at it (I know, because he complained publicly about the situation). I don't know what happens in the Windows GUI toolkit or Cocoa, but I doubt there's one person doing all the work -- and only during his free time at that...

by Crito 13y ago

ori_b 13y ago

In other words, your interpretation of "Linus's Law" has no impact on code quality in the real world. Edit: However, since it's meant to imply that in open source, there are people looking at code, I think that the criticisms stand.

Crito 13y ago
Yes, in the sense that Crito's Law (coined by me, now) "The bigger the ship, the more freight you can fit in it." has no impact on the real-world ship transport industry. It is obviously true to the point of being banal. It is a pointless statement of uncontroversial fact that provides next to no utility to anybody. It's not even interesting for being a tautology. If I were a particularly objectionable and self-promoting person, then perhaps people might object to Crito's Law whenever it were quoted on shipping forums, but that wouldn't make it incorrect. Nor would my shameless self-promotion make it profound. (Is Crito's Law _precisely_ true? Well no, some large ships are not designed for freight after all... but the general principle is true.)
- coldtea 13y ago
  You seem to continuously miss the point he makes. "Many eyes make bugs shallower" is indeed true and a tautology. The way ESR meant it, it's merely BS. He meant is as in: "because open source code is available for everybody to see, many people look at it, and so bugs are found more easily". In the context it was said, it was meant as a factual observation about what GOES ON in OSS, not merely as a trite theoritical description about many eyes being better. So, people are arguing against that, not against the idea that if more people ACTUALLY look, they will find more bugs. The case is, very few people look at code. In some cases, even for extremely widely used software by millions of OSS users, even less people than the people paid to look at a particular proprietary software look at the code. Heck, Gtk, the basis of most Linux desktops, had in the latest years like 1-developer really working at it (I know, because he complained publicly about the situation). I don't know what happens in the Windows GUI toolkit or Cocoa, but I doubt there's one person doing all the work -- and only during his free time at that...