John said -
- - - - I just trust ya!

=============================

John, I'm glad you said "ya!" rather than "the program".

It is a fact that, these days, computer programs are far too often,
unjustifiably, treated as The Bible. It's similar to quoting or
misquoting the popular works of Terman, Brown and Kraus and inevitably
taking them out of context.

The most important characteristic of a program is it's Reliability.
And Reliability is a measure of Quality versus Time. And Quality is a
function of the programmer's ability to understand the real world, to
model it, and mathematically incorporate the model in his or her
programs.

Quality and Reliability, in the broadest sense, are measures of the
degree of conformance to the intended purpose. Indeed, they can be
measured.

However, people such as school teachers strenuously object to being
subjected to work measurement. Whereas skilled factory machine
operators are quite accustomed to it and their pay often depends on
it. You don't get paid for scrap.

It's time Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries were paid according
to their Quality performance.

But I've strayed far enough from lecher-lines. I appreciate your
comments which induced me into it.
----
Reg, G4FGQ