Bertrand Meyer's technology+ blog
Software engineering, programming methodology, languages, verification, general technology, publication culture, and more
The resources we have at our disposal on a computing system may be huge, but they are always finite, and our programs’ appetite for resources will eventually exhaust them. At that stage, we have to deal with the SBYBAW rule, which sounds like a tautology but is an encouragement to look for clever algorithms: techniques for freeing resources when no resources remain may not request new resources.
A statistical textbook [1] contains this gem of wisdom: Only a fool would conclude that a painting that was judged as excellent by one person and contemptible by another ought therefore to be classified as mediocre. Common sense indeed; but does the procedure not recall how the typical conference program committee works, with averages … Read more