I’m talking about programs that can’t be improved no matter what. They do exactly what they’re supposed to and will never be changed.
It’ll probably have to be something small, like cd or pwd, but does such a program exist?
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- 3 months
What does perfect hello world even mean? It can be realized in many ways and none is the best way.
- degen@midwest.socialEnglish3 months
Computers can’t even greet you in the real world. Its like some kind of sick joke.
“Dance, clanker! Dance!”
- 3 months
It was fault tolerant but I wouldn’t say it was perfect. There were plenty of “known issues”, and the fix in production was basically, “don’t do that”.
- 4 months
You may be interested by this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_verification.
Prominent examples of verified software systems include the CompCert verified C compiler and the seL4 high-assurance operating system kernel.
- Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish4 months
Automotive engine control computers.
They just work, for decades and millions of miles.
- IanTwenty@piefed.socialEnglish3 months
There was a moment in time where maybe it was qmail:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qmail
Ten years after the launch of qmail 1.0, and at a time when more than a million of the Internet’s SMTP servers ran either qmail or netqmail, only four known bugs had been found in the qmail 1.0 releases, and no security issues.
More on how it was accomplished:
https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/01/17/some-thoughts-on-security-after-ten-years-of-qmail-1-0/
- 3 months
Djbdns was excellent too, and ezmlm,.in fact all DJB’s software was quality for its single purpose. The world moved on though, and you had to have your basic Internet servers just…do more
4 monthsNo; since every user defines the perfect program differently. Which should be the default behaviour(s)?
- 4 months
You cannot criticize a good knife by asking why it’s not a hammer.
But I can critisize it for having only one sharp edge instead of 2. Or for being too short or too long. Or for having a handle that’s not shaped well for my hand. (That last metaphor is probably the correct one for the sentiment I’m going for.)
- 4 months
The answer remains, this tool is not flawed, it’s just not the one you want.
Vim could be feature-complete and formally verified and I’m still using Xed.
- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish3 months
A hammer is a completely different tool, but different defaults in a single program are not.
Point is there’s no objective standard for “perfect”
- VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish3 months
I wanted to say VLC because to me, it’s the gold standard of fully working open-source software that just destroys the commercial competitors.
But it’s not perfect only because society changes. New video formats forces VLC and open-source devs to adapt. Bigger video and new tech specs require VLC to update. If it wasn’t for all those external needs, VLC would be perfect.
Did I also mentioned the many times rich companies wanted to buy VLC and they laughed?
- 3 months
It’s worth noting that most commercial multimedia software is also more or less a wrapper around ffmpeg
- kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish4 months
Is there a perfect building?
Probably not, since they exist in an environment — which is constantly changing — and are used by people — whose needs are constantly changing.
The same is true of software. Yes, programs consist of math which has objective qualities. But in order to execute in the physical world, they have to make certain assumptions which can always be invalidated.
Consider fast inverse sqrt: maybe perfect, for the time, for specific uses, on specific hardware? Probably not perfect for today.
- 4 months
Notepad.exe, pre-windows 11. Now it’s something else entirely but still uses the name :(
- 4 months
Nah it was eternally annoying that it didn’t support Unix line endings. Also there are clearly a ton of basic features that people want from lightweight text editors.
- 4 months
Notepad did what it needed to do, but it could be improved in a lot of ways
- 3 months
The 2021 release of Tex included several bug-fixes, so not quite 12 years:
https://tug.org/texmfbug/tuneup21bugs.html
See also the following list of potential bugs, that may be included in the planned 2029 release of Tex:
https://tug.org/texmfbug/newbug.html
That said, Tex is still an impressive piece of software
TeX?
Development is considered to be complete, and the version numbering is just adding a digit of pi. Last change was 5 years ago.
- 3 months
This was going to be my point. The idea that as the software slowly makes new releases the version number more and more closely approximates Pi
- 3 months
I don’t think such thing as perfect software exist, only abandoned software. If the environment changes, then the software needs changes too.
