[SystemSafety] Bossavit's Leprechauns book

[Derek M Jones]

Les,

> Is Bossavit supporting or rejecting the legends. Having read his book, what does he want you to
> do with the information.

 From the open chapter:

"The software profession has a problem, widely recognized but
which nobody seems willing to do much about. You can think of
this problem as a variant of the well known ¿telephone game¿,
where some trivial rumor is repeated from one person to the next
until it has become distorted beyond recognition and blown up
out of all proportion.

Unfortunately, the objects of this telephone game are generally
considered cornerstone truths of the discipline, to the point that
their acceptance now hinders further progress.

It is not that these claims are outlandish in themselves; they
started as somewhat reasonable hypotheses. The problem is that
they have become entrenched as ¿fact¿ supposedly supported
by ¿research¿, and attained this elevated status in spite of being
merely anecdotal.

How we got there

One of the ways that anecdote persists is by dressing itself up
in the garments of proper scholarship. Suppose you come across
the following claim for the first time:..."

> Les
> 
>> Les,
>>
>>> PBL
>>> Please explain. Is Bossavit denigrating these concepts by calling them memes, myths or
> legends? Is he
>>
>> Peter has jumbled together commentary on Bossavit's book, commentary
>> on what people on this list have been talking about and his own views.
>>
>> Bossavit writes in a very readable style and it is clear what
>> his discovered (or rather not discovered, i.e., data backing up
>> the claims investigated).
>>
>> -- 
>> Derek M. Jones           Software analysis
>> tel: +44 (0)1252 520667  blog:shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com
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> 
> 
> 
> --
> Les Chambers
> les at chambers.com.au
> +61 (0)412 648 992
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Derek M. Jones           Software analysis
tel: +44 (0)1252 520667  blog:shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com