Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/sources/std_unix/volume.31/text0008.txt

Text File | 1993-07-15 | 1.8 KB | 36 lines

Submitted-by: [e-mail] (peter da silva)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bob Bagwill) writes:
>In the absence of a test method (and, presumably test assertions)
>what does it mean to "come as close as possible to the original
>standard"?
>1) Don't implement.  Buy the product from the original inventor.
>2) Implement, but use the inventor's test suite.
>3) Implement using the paper standard,
>   and use lawyers to "prove" that your implementation meets the standard.

4) Implement, using the most popular and widely available implementation
   of the standard as a guideline to cover the inevitable gaps in anything
   as complex as this. Honestly attempt to produce as versatile a system
   as possible under these constraints. Use feedback from your customers
   and competitors to improve the quality and conformity of your system.
   Amdahl and Digital Research have been pretty successful using this
   method without even having a paper standard to work from. Coherent and
   Eunice have carved out appropriate niches using this, again without
   even having a standard when they were first released.

A standard is not a spec for a product. If a company is (for whatever reasons)
using it as such, test assertions won't do anything but lower the actual
quality of the resulting product. If a company is making an honest attempt
at producing the best possible product they can afford to that meets the
requirements spelled out in the standard, the market will tell.

--
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Ferranti International Controls Corporation                'U`
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012 USA
[phone]                            "Zure otsoa besarkatu al duzu gaur?"

Volume-Number: Volume 31, Number 7