[gizmo]

I agree that sqlite's quality is unusually high. That's why I used it as an example of what kind of quality is achievable.

However, I think you're approaching this from the wrong way. The most important thing about sqlite isn't the amount of manhours put into it, but the millions upon millions of manhours that have been saved because the product works so unbelievably well.

sqlite is the exception, and this is because the people involved in it really care about quality. Our software engineering culture has a lot to learn from the success of sqlite.