I can't believe the quality of software from microsoft!

[alidabiri]

i have been writing software for the past 27 years. from assembler to java, c++, vb, pl/i, cobol, sql, etc.....
the principle of error handling was always to prevent possible and probable mistakes or malicious attempts.
how can a software (i.e. windows) allow any agent imbed itself in a registry, or startup, or anywhere for that matter, with a blank or invalid characters in program name?
is this how they write software these days?
god help us.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Well Im not a programmer, just a normal mostly self taught tech and college bound lol but my opinion of the matter as it seems with most companies is dollar signs. They see dollar signs and care and brains go out the window. They ship things out to fast, do sloppy work just to get as much money as quick as possible without any concern for the customer. That is my opinion on the matter lol.

 

[JockMullin]

I have been programming for 40 years, and in that time I have managed to learn only two things: 1) the reliability of a piece of software is inversely proportional to the power of its complexity (i.e. 3 times more complex means 1/27th as reliable) and 2) no programmer can ever foresee the ways end users can find to thwart error handling.

I can't believe I am defending Microsoft, but I do think they do a pretty reasonable job, especially with the NT-class OS's. These are amazingly complex programs having to deal with a myriad of hardware and software environments and trying to be open enough to allow a high level of flexibility and configurability without requiring a lot of technical expertise to install and administer. Their beta testing program is exemplary, in my opinion.

Sure there are bugs and unfortunately a ton of security holes, but these are problems because clever people are out there trying to find and exploit them - by and large they would not be a problem in a benign environment.

A lot of the shortcomings in Windows have to do with the legacy - having been developed on the 808x's loopy memory model and needing to provide a viable migration path with each quantum jump in technology. I'm sure if they were writing from scratch today they would do it differently, but they don't have that luxury - they are in business to make money, not to code the ultimate OS.

Having said all that, I do have a lot of problems with MS's licensing and obsolescence policies, but those are marketing decisions, not technical in nature. Similarly they do hobble their offerings in order not to compete with their other program products - more marketing.

However I would also say that MS has usually been very good at acquiring excellent 3rd party technology and then being able not to drop the ball, thinking in particular of things like SQL server and Giant Anti-Spyware as only 2 examples. They buy something to run with it, not just to bleed it dry.

Jock
"Easy to use is easy to say" Jeff Garbers (Xtalk XVI)