Software bugs/errors are present in every piece of software. When you get a software error a lot of times it doesn"t make any sense. So what"s being done to make these software errors more useful? Andrew Ko has developed a debugging program that lets users ask questions about computer errors in plain English. All I have to say is that it"s about time, assuming software developers adopt it.
Computer bugs, or errors in software, can mess up just about anything: They"ve been blamed for missing homework, blackouts, prison breaks and even the loss of multimillion-dollar space probes.
They can be costly to the economy -- almost $60 billion a year, a 2002 federal study estimates. But they"re difficult pests to eliminate, because doing so requires programmers to perform "an elaborate detective investigation," said Brad Myers, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor. "You are trying to make guesses about where the problem is and prove your hypothesis. A lot of time programmers guess wrong ... and add new bugs because they were trying to fix something that wasn"t broken."
But help is on the way. Myers and a graduate student, Andrew Ko, have developed a debugging program that lets users ask questions about computer errors in plain English: Why didn"t a program behave as expected? Funded by $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation, Whyline -- short for Workspace for Helping You Link Instructions to Numbers and Events -- is designed for programmers of all kinds, from hard-core professionals to weekend Web designers.