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Comment by wrong_variable | Hacker News Reader

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wrong_variable·

Comparing the production line for F1 with your average software shop is an unfair comparison.

If you are ready to pay the same amount of money - you can get the same level of quality in software too.

The problem is most people do not even think software should cost anything.

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Not only that... I don't think they will "refactor" the engine in the middle of the production, or include new features in the transmission before a deadline.

The boss saw an article in "racing weekly" about using square wheels and our salesman told him you'll have it done by tomorrow.

Exactly. We know how to build reliable (nearly) bug-free software.

The problem is, for most things, it's too expensive. What we have is good enough.

> We know how to build reliable (nearly) bug-free software.

Do we? Let's say, starting tomorrow, you have to write rocket-guiding software. If your program has bugs, you will be summarily executed. What are the odds that you will survive the process? I wouldn't estimate mine at anything significantly above zero.

How long can I take?

I have no idea how much time this would take in the real world. Pulling a number totally out of my ass, let's say five years. You may not use subcontractors to develop the software.

Well, then I'm pretty confident I could survive at least five years... :P

Which I guess is enough time to buy life insurance. At least your family won't have money problems. :-)

To be honest, for commensurate reward, I'd probably be sufficiently confident that I could get something done bug-free in 5 years if it was something that I felt could hack out bug-full in a week. Much of that time would go toward task-specific verification-related tooling...

Its not f1 its small batch production of sports cars - f1 you effectively build a pair of new cars for each race/test.

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