Royal Pain

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 01:45:04AM -0400, Scott Elcomb wrote:
> I love that quote.  All of them actually.
> 
> Perfection is a waste of time for us, but I'm not sure it will be for
> Sony and the QRIO.
> 
> Give them a few years.  I'm sure they've already got plans for Mars, the
> moon, and any number of other places.
> 
> The fuzzy controllers(?) in it are about the most perfect I've heard of.
> 
> http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/
> 
> (I'd recommend the Flash presentation.)
> 
> Frankly, I don't know what to make of this "toy."

Well I am certainly happy that not all companies (and programmers) think
perfection is a waste of time.  Companies that work on automation
software for trains and subways, and software for air planes and such
certainly live by a much higher standard (and should too).  Companies
working on control software for medical equiment certainly should too
(although there has been a few cases where they didn't, with unfortunate
results).

If all you are doing is writing a web browser, you can get away with
being sloppy if you really think that's the way to go, although why
would you want to?  I think it is more interesting to make software bug
free when possible and to make it do excactly what it is supposed to at
all times.  In some cases the specifications aren't accurate enough to
do that, but you can still try.  I suppose the bottom line is often what
drives people to cut corners.  Fortunately the bottom line likely won't be
there next time if a comapny doing safety critical stuff cuts corners.

Lennart Sorensen
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