[tormeh]

>The state of the art in making sure things work is just brute-force, constant testing.

I'm pretty sure the state of the art is using good type systems and libraries that use that type system. It takes some of the brute force out of testing. Unfortunately, many places don't even use the full power of the types their chosen language have. Others choose PHP or C++, piling on technical debt because they sell software the way HP sells printers - the initial payment is low, but you'll have to pay for support and bugfixes forever.

The only thing that can make software cheaper is the customers demanding better tools, languages and processes.

[kctess5]

C++ has a type system. I suppose then that your implication is that it's not a 'good' type system. What would you pick instead?

[smnplk]

Haskell ?

[oneplane]

Lisp?