On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> Rogier Wolff <R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl>:
> > It really would help reduce bugs if there were more shared code.
> >
> > If you split drivers, the number of users will drop. So less bugs get
> > found.
>
> Linus, I think this is an excellent point and one you should consider.
It's a stupid lie, and one we should ignore at all times it comes up.
It is NOT true that "shared code means less bugs". People, wake up!
It's true that "simple and tested code means less bugs". And quite often,
code sharing will imply that the code gets (a) more complex and (b) has
cases that people who make changes will never be able to test.
No, I'm not saying that sharing is bad. Sharing is good. But anybody who
makes a blanket statement like "sharing reduces bugs" is full of crap.
Good and clear interfaces reduce bugs. Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.
Using your brain before you code something up reduces bugs.
But making a very complex driver that handles ten different variations on
the same hardware? No. That does _not_ reduce bugs. It's quite often more
efficient to have two people work on two drivers that are independent of
each other, than to have two persons working on the same driver. Alan put
it well at some point: the way to create working open source software is
to minimize the amount of communication needed.
Make good interfaces. THAT will reduce bugs.
Linus
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 23 2000 - 21:00:07 EST