chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) (02/08/91)
According to brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein): >You can have an infinite amount of defensive programming, down to >running a = b + c in triplicate and getting the majority-vote result. The issue is not processor integrity, but checking reported errors from system calls. I appreciate the analysis of the pty program, which I elided. For the record, I have never accused Dan of being a poor programmer. My only contention is that criticism of programming style, when offered, should be given in a spirit of humility and with an almost complete lack of flat statements. [:-)] To do otherwise is not only unrealistic; it defeats the entire purpose of constructive criticism, namely, to help the recipient. If you do not expect the recipient to benefit from invective, why post it? >Compared to ``professional'' Berkeley source ... Berkeley source is a straw man -- everyone knows it's largely horrid. So is System V source, and even V7 source, for that matter. >When someone says that a small number of passes is an important goal in >and of itself, he's being silly. It's just a heuristic. >If I didn't have as much respect for you and your work, this article >would be a lot shorter (and a hell of a lot less polite). Something like >.... To say "I'm too polite to say <foo>" is to contradict oneself. -- Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT <chip@tct.uucp>, <uunet!pdn!tct!chip> "Most of my code is written by myself. That is why so little gets done." -- Herman "HLLs will never fly" Rubin