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MURPHY'S LAWS
and Others Reasons Things Go Wrong

Page 4
BINARY MURPHOLOGY

If you find errors on these pages... it's to be expected


Laws of Computer Programming:

1. Any given program, when running, is obsolete.

2. Any given program costs more and takes longer.

3. if a program is useful, it will have to be changed.

4. If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.

5. Any given program will expand to fill all available memory.

6. The value of a program is proportional to the weight of its output.

7. Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the programmer who must maintain it.

 

Troutman's Programming Postulates:

I. If a test installation functions perfectly, all subsequent systems will malfunction.

2. Not until a program has been in production for at least six months will the most harmful error be discovered.

3. Job control cards that positively cannot be arranged in improper order will be.

4. Interchangeable tapes won't.

5. If the input editor has been designed to reject all bad input, an ingenious idiot will discover a method to get bad data past it.

6. Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.

 

Gilb"s Laws of Unreliability:

1. Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable,

2. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

3. Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited.

4. Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done.

 

Laws of Computerdom According to Golub:

1. Fuzzy project objectives are used to avoid the embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs.

2. A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned project takes only twice as long.

3. The effort required to correct course increases geometrically with time.

4. Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly manifests' their lack of progress.

 

Brook's Law:

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

 

Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology:

There's always one more bug.

 

Koppelmann's 10 Laws of Computing

  1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you  meant it to happen.

  2. When you get to the point where you really understand  your computer, it's probably obsolete.

  3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you'd least expect to find  it.

  4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.

  5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

  6. To err is human...to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human, its downright natural.

  7. He who laughs last, probably has a back-up.

  8. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.

  9. A complex system that doesn't work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

  10. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want it to do.

 

Shaw's Principle:

Build a system that even a foot can use, and only a fool will want to use it.

 

 

Weinberg's Second Law:

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

 

 Murphy's Laws of Computing!

1. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

2.To err is human... to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human; in fact it is downright natural.

3. He who laughs last probably made a back-up.

4. If at first you don't succeed, blame your computer.

5. A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just  fine.

6. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.

7. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want it to do.

8. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

9. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it's probably obsolete.

10. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

11. When the going gets tough, upgrade.

12. When you need to send an email quick, that's when the modem won't connect!

 

To Page 5 MACHINESMANSHIP

As the laws are presented on my weekly e-mail list I will add them here. Come back each week or see them first by sending an e-mail to murphy-subscribe@topica.com

 

If you have other Murphy type "Laws"to add please E mail me

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