const

Walter Bright newshound1 at digitalmars.com
Fri Mar 28 14:56:05 PDT 2008


Georg Wrede wrote:
>  The total number of known unfixed bugs was a trade secret,
> and people lived happily /believing/ they use a reasonable compiler. 
> Quality wise, D1 beats the lot hands down already.
> 
> I bet Walter would have a couple of juicy anecdotes on this.

Yeah, I do <g>. Back in the 80's, I once made the mistake of including 
with the compiler a text file with a list of known bugs in the compiler. 
It wasn't long before a lazy journalist did a review of the compiler in 
a magazine, a review which mainly consisted of copy/pasting the bug list 
in its entirety. He declared that the existence of that bug list proved 
the compiler was unstable and unusable. Keeping the bug list secret was 
a matter of survival.

Fortunately, the open source movement has changed the culture. Open 
source code cannot keep trade secrets, and so the bug list must also be 
open. Bug lists now are seen as an essential part of good service.



More information about the Digitalmars-d mailing list