From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 3676 invoked from network); 8 Sep 2022 15:02:57 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 8 Sep 2022 15:02:57 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E1F541782; Fri, 9 Sep 2022 01:02:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E2A9D4177F for ; Fri, 9 Sep 2022 01:02:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id A9CAA35E61D; Thu, 8 Sep 2022 08:02:28 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2022 08:02:28 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Paul Winalski Message-ID: <20220908150228.GI11929@mcvoy.com> References: <20220907145631.GN31856@mcvoy.com> <8DDF5A51-AABF-41AF-993C-4D087903BDC9@canb.auug.org.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Message-ID-Hash: MO5XW6QUAJY7C5572PTPVRJATZ3NBPCR X-Message-ID-Hash: MO5XW6QUAJY7C5572PTPVRJATZ3NBPCR X-MailFrom: lm@mcvoy.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: Steve Jenkin , TUHS X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Has this been discussed on-list? How Unix changed Software. List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Thu, Sep 08, 2022 at 10:42:47AM -0400, Paul Winalski wrote: > On 9/7/22, Steve Jenkin wrote: > > Would your folk ship code with a list of outstanding bug reports? > > ** Everyone ** ships code with known bugs. If you insist on getting > things perfect your code never gets out the door. At some point you > have to decide that what you have is good enough to be released. > > The trick is to decide what constitutes "good enough". Some of it > depends on your target application and user base. What's good enough > for Hunt the Wumpus may well not be good enough for process control > software for a pacemaker or nuclear reactor. And if you're producing > software for commercial sale, marketing and business factors enter the > mix as well. > > > I don???t think Ken & Dennis did that. > > OTOH I'm certain that they did. As I told Steve in private email, it's a balancing act and it is a bit of an art. On the one hand you have new features and a bunch of bugs that you fixed, on the other hand you have this new bug report. Knowing when the right call is to ship and when the right call is to stop the train, that's the art. I could make an attempt at writing down how you make that call but it would just be an attempt. Experience will tell you how to make that call. I can say, mostly I shipped. It has to be something pretty dramatic to start the process over when you know it is going to be a 6 month delay at minimum.