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by pizza234 3077 days ago
> As we cast about trying to figure out ways to make software more secure or reliable, please remember that in other engineering fields (civil, chemical, mechanical, etc.) prioritizing safety and reliability is a _solved problem_.

The article makes an unfair comparison; if the solution to the problem is like the one below (extract from the article), the change, reasonably, will never happen in commercial programs (the ones "with 5000 errors").

> Take the upgrade of the software to permit the shuttle to navigate with Global Positioning Satellites, a change that involves just 1.5% of the program, or 6,366 lines of code. The specs for that one change run 2,500 pages, a volume thicker than a phone book. The specs for the current program fill 30 volumes and run 40,000 pages.