Bertrand Meyer's technology+ blog
Software engineering, programming methodology, languages, verification, general technology, publication culture, and more
(A version of this note was published as three separate articles in the Communications of the ACM blog.) Work in engineering, science or technology can only be effective if it relies on precisely defined concepts. For the fundamental notions taught at school, particularly in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the definitions, honed over centuries, have become … Read more
Here is an extract from of an exchange between ChatGPT and me. Previous elements: I am writing a text on a topic that I know well but not to the point of considering myself an expert. Along the way, I am asking ChatGPT for information, or confirmation of information that I think I know. Indeed, … Read more
The news is so bad right now everywhere that it is natural to take refuge in discussing matters of (bad) style. I have things to say about the real issues too but not this time. I am following in the tradition of Niklaus Wirth who told me that he regularly sent letters of complaint to … Read more
I recently wrote a working paper (on academic careers) and since it was urgently needed I did not want to spend time on style issues but instead to keep things simple. So I preceded it with the comment “Using he’ as an abbreviation for `he or she’.” I received the helpful suggestion that I could … Read more
I harbor no illusion about the effectiveness of airing this particular pet peeve; complaining about it has about the same chance of success as protesting against split infinitives or music in restaurants. Still, it is worth mentioning that the widespread use of the word “statement” to denote a programming language element, such as an assignment, that … Read more
I am happy to announce the publication of the Handbook of Requirements and Business Analysis (Springer, 2022). It is the result of many years of thinking about requirements and how to do them right, taking advantage of modern principles of software engineering. While programming, languages, design techniques, process models and other software engineering disciplines have … Read more
Requirements documents for software projects in industry, agile or not, typically follow a plan defined in a 1998 IEEE standard (IEEE 830-1998 [1]), “reaffirmed” in 2009. IEEE 830 has the merit of simplicity, as it fits in 37 pages of which just a few (competently) describe basic requirements concepts and less than 10 are devoted to … Read more
There is a fateful ritual to keynote invitations. The first message reads (I am paraphrasing): “Respected peerless luminary of this millennium and the next, Will your excellency ever forgive me for the audacity of asking if you would deign to leave for a short interlude the blessed abodes that habitually beget your immortal insights, and … Read more
(This article is about the kind of French that you find on e-commerce sites these days.) Le site amazon.fr a de plus en plus de produits destinés à des marchés internationaux et bénéficiant d’une présentation en français produite par des algorithmes approximatifs. Je ne suis pas absolument sûr du « bénéfice » en question, ni d’ailleurs … Read more