Because there are so many spreadsheets? My team probably created 100 last week. ...

Karellen · 2024-11-02T23:51:40 1730591500

> Because there are so many spreadsheets?

The studies show the percentage of spreadsheets with errors in. Unless you have a reason to suspect this is not independent of the number of spreadsheets, I'm not sure what your point is?

> Now think of 100 pieces of software that you are confident are 100% error free?

Because software is either buggy or not buggy? And measurements like "defect rate" (e.g. defects/kloc) and "bug severity" do not exist? Come on.

jimnotgym · 2024-11-03T00:28:12 1730593692

Unless your software is formally verified how would you know?

I have to say my experience as a user has been that all software is buggy to some extent. Anyone who has worked in software for a reasonable amount of time will have found a bug in their own code that apparently worked fine, but actually was not quite right.

Would anybody on hn stand up and say that they never had a bug?

fn-mote · 2024-11-03T00:52:24 1730595144

I think you misunderstand the point of the poster you are responding to.

They are trying to say that 100% error free is neither appropriate nor useful. It is a binary classification that throws away the important nuance.

That’s why they mention measures like “defect rate” and “bug severity”. Those measures are not currently being discussed here, and they should be.