Re: Release notes: term for bugs

[Sandy Harris <pashley -at- storm -dot- ca>]

Sean Hower wrote:
> 
> Johnathon West wrote:
> In some small shops, it is only as they write the code
> that they *discover* how they want it to work. The 
> design follows the writing of the code, not the other
> way around....There was *nothing* in the entire place
> written down as to what the product was meant to do.
> 
> --------------------------------------
> 
> You're the third person, aside from myself, who has 
> mentioned working in a place that operated like that.
> I'm wondering how many places out there are like this. 

For some problems, that may be the right method. You need
an iterative approach. Build a prototype, play with it,
learn some things, build a better one, ...

You don't know enough at the start to write a good spec,
and you're better off trying to learn more than writing
a bad one.

The best discussion of this I've seen is in a paper by 
Beau Sheils called "Power Tools for Programmers", which
I read in a mid-80s book titled "Interactive Programming 
Environments".

A quick search didn't turn up the full paper online, but
did get this quote:

" To those accustomed to the precise, structured methods
" of conventional system development, exploratory 
" development techniques may seem messy, inelegant, and
" unsatisfying. But it's a question of congruence:
" precision and inflexibility may be just as dysfunctional
" in novel, uncertain situations as sloppiness and
" vacillation are in familiar, well-defined ones. Those
" who admire the massive, rigid bone structures of
" dinosaurs should remember that jellyfish still enjoy
" their very secure ecological niche.


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