Bug Report & Fix

[Terry Jones]

<<...DIDACTIC MODE ON...with apologies...>>

Hold onto your hat Manor. The worst is surely yet to come.  Wait until
people start using Swarm and writing papers based on the results they
obtain. Then, a year later, you discover a bug.

That's a great feeling (NOT), and one that you may well get to
experience...  It could even be you who gets to give the talks,
publish the papers, AND be responsible for the bug!  After all, why
share the fun?


Barring unexpected (on the order of the second coming) advances in
program verification, this is probably an inevitable problem in a
project such as Swarm.  I don't think the answer is to abandon all
hope, but to be very cautious, to understand that you absolutely WILL
make these mistakes, that other people's mistakes will affect you, and
that that's (this) life.

I used to be much more pit-bull-like in my reaction to this situation
(not your one, but the more important one where papers are published
etc.).  It seemed like a TERRIBLE way to be doing what people seem to
like to call "science".  One day though, it occurred to me that all
science is buggy in essentially the same way.  I still don't like it,
but can at least take some solace in the knowledge that we're not as
alone as I had thought.

The way forward can only be through mistakes like this.  Having the
courage to admit them is great.  A good sense of humor and some
humbleness can go a long way.  Programs are never finished, only
released.  You should see some of the colossal fuckups that I've
removed from Echo over the years...


Der Antiprogrammer.