[TUHS] Has this been discussed on-list? How Unix changed Software.

[Larry McVoy]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2022 at 10:42:47AM -0400, Paul Winalski wrote:
> On 9/7/22, Steve Jenkin <sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au> 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.