--On Sunday, October 23, 2022 12:48 -0400 Miles Fidelman
<mfidelman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well... I was thinking more of "we" as an industry. I sure
> remember having to pass various validation tests when
> delivering systems, back in the day. As well as regression
> tests when shipping updates. These days, the world seems to
> have moved to release early & often, then fix bugs when
> someone opens a ticket. (I miss working in perl - where the
> norm is to include automatic regression testing in every
> makefile.)
Yes. If your comment was about "the industry", broadly defined,
you are absolutely right. We could have a rather long
discussion, one that would benefit from lubrication with
appropriate beverages, about whether those validation tests and
regression testing were, on average, enough fit for purpose to
be worth the trouble. They were much better (and large
investments were made in them) in situations where those
involved were told "get it wrong and people die" but those cases
were, relatively speaking, rare.
I probably have even less sympathy than you do for the newer
model you describe (one that I usually describe as "who cares
about beta test or even alpha test, just ship it and the users
will figure out what is wrong and tell us". I think I know when
that originated and who was responsible, but, again, not an IETF
topic. If I ever have time to try to participate actively in/on
internet-history again, that might be an interesting place to
hold the discussion, but I have not been able to do that for a
few years and don't see its getting better in the near future.
But, if it about the industry and not the IETF and/or the
Internet specifically, let's get it off this list.
best,
john
