Heedless programming: Ignoring detectable error is a widespread hazard

Software - Practice and Experience

Volumn 42, Issue 11, 2012, Pages 1393-1407

  Thimbleby, Harold ^a  

^a SWANSEA UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

dependability; design tradeoffs; Excel; FORTRAN; heedless programming; human error; Java; JavaScript; Mathematica

Indexed keywords

DEPENDABILITY; DESIGN TRADEOFF; EXCEL; HUMAN ERRORS; JAVA; JAVASCRIPT; MATHEMATICA;

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING; FORTRAN (PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE);

JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE;

EID: 84867096959     PISSN: 00380644     EISSN: 1097024X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/spe.1141     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Brooks Jr. FP,. The Design of Design. Addison-Wesley: Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 2010.
2. Babbage C,. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 1864.
3. Wilkes MV, Wheeler DJ, Gill S,. The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer: With Special Reference to the EDSAC and the Use of a Library of Subroutines. Tomash Publishers, 1982 reprint.
4. New York Time's. For want of hyphen Venus Rocket is lost, Tuesday, April 13, 2010, (2010). (Available from: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=FA0913FA3C5E147B93CAAB178CD85F468685F9).
5. Thimbleby H, Cairns P,. Reducing number entry errors: solving a widespread, serious problem. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 2010; 7 (51): 1429-1439.
6. Thimbleby H,. Calculators are needlessly bad. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 2000; 52 (6): 1031-1069.
7. Wickens CD, Hollands JG,. Engineering Psychology and Human Performance, Third Edition. Prentice Hall International: London, 2000.
8. Thompson K,. Reflections on trusting trust. Communications of the ACM 1984; 27 (8): 761-763.
9. Landauer TK,. The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability and Productivity. MIT Press: Cambridge, USA, 1996.
10. Hoare CAR,. The verified software initiative: a manifesto. ACM Computing Surveys 2009; 41 (4): 22:1-22:8.
11. Hoare CAR, Misra J,. (eds). Special issue on software verification. ACM Computing Surveys 2009; 41 (4).
12. Hoare CAR,. The ideal of program correctness: third computer journal lecture. Computer Journal 2007; 50 (3): 254-260.
13. Woodcock J, Larsen PG, Fitzgerald J,. Formal methods: practice and experience. ACM Computing Surveys 2009; 41 (4): 19:1-19:36.
14. Nader R,. Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile, Revised Ed. Bantam Books: New York, New York, USA, 1973.
15. Lowry ES,. Report on a 1969 NATO Conference on Software Engineering Techniques (, Buxton JN, Randell B, eds). The Kynoch Press, 1970.
16. Lowry ES,. Software simplicity, and hence safety a- thwarted for decades, International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2004.
17. Dijkstra E,. The end of computing science? Communications of the ACM 2001; 44 (3): 92.
18. Thimbleby H,. Ignorance of interaction programming is killing people. ACM Interactions 2008: 52-57.
19. Crockford D,. JavaScript: The Good Parts. O'Reilly: Sebastopol, California, USA, 2008.
20. Thimbleby H,. Think! Interactive systems need safety locks. Journal of Computing and Information Technology 2010; 18 (4): 349-360.
21. Arnold K, Gosling J,. The Java Programming Language. Addison-Wesley: Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 1996.
22. Thimbleby H,. Java: a critique. Softwarea-Practice & Experience 1999; 29 (5): 457-478.
23. Ritchie DM, Johnson SC, Lesk ME, Kernighan BW,. The C programming language. The Bell System Technical Journal 1978; 57 (6): 1998-2019.
24. Bloch J, Gafter N,. Java Puzzlers a- Traps, Pitfalls and Corner Cases. Addison-Wesley: Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 2005.
25. Spafford E,. Crisis and aftermath. Communications of the ACM 1989; 32 (6): 678-687.
26. Cormen TH, Rivest RL, Leiserson CE, Stein C,. Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd edn. MIT Press: Cambridge, USA, 2009.
27. Thimbleby H,. Signposting in documents. Computer Journal 2010; 54 (7): 1119-1135.
28. Hoare CAR,. The Emperor's old clothes, Turing award lecture. Communications of the ACM 1981; 24 (2): 75-83.
29. Amey P,. Logic versus magic in critical systems. In Reliable Software Technologies a- Ada-Europe 2001 6th Ada-Europe International Conference, Vol. 2043, Craeynest D, Strohmeier A, (eds), Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg, Germany, 2001.
30. Berra Y,. The Yogi Book: I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said. Workman Publishing Company: New York, New York, USA, 1999.
31. Kruger J, Dunning D,. Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999; 77 (6): 121-1134.
32. Thimbleby H,. You're right about the cure: don't do that. Interacting with Computers 1990; 2 (1): 8-25.
33. Jobs S,. Quoted in Hertzfeld, A, 1983. (Available from: www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh\&story=Saving\-Lives.txt) [21 October 2011].
34. Tavris C, Aronson E,. Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts. Pinter & Martin Ltd, 2008.
35. Kernighan BW, Plauger PJ,. The Elements of Programming Style, 2nd edn. McGraw Hill: London, UK, 1978.
36. Gawande A,. The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right. Profile Books: London, UK, 2010.
37. Hoare CAR, Jifeng He,. Unified Theories of Programming. Prentice Hall: London, UK, 1998.
38. Bloch J,. Effective Java, Second edition. Addison-Wesley: Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 2008.
39. Feynman RP,. Cargo cult science, caltech commencement address. In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character. Vintage: London, UK, 1974. 1992.
40. Summers S,. How many lightbulbs does it take to change an engineer? Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology 2004; 76 (1): 47-50.
41. Patterson K, Grenny J, Maxfield D, McMillan R, Switzler A,. Influencer. McGraw-Hill: New York, 2008.
42. Wilkes MV,. Quoted in Campbell-Kelly, M. Historical Reflections: In Praise of 'Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill. Communications of the ACM 2011; 54 (9): 25-27.