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Hillel Wayne

What Hillel Wayne thinks about software quality

@hillel-wayne · 45 positions · On ppll ↗

Writer and consultant on formal methods, testing and software correctness, author of Logic for Programmers and Practical TLA+. He ran the Crossover Project, interviewing seventeen people who worked as traditional engineers before becoming software developers, to settle by evidence whether software engineering is engineering.

Hillel Wayne did not write this page.

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Only Hillel Wayne on software quality. See everyone on software quality

6 dated positions, 2017 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Hillel Wayne has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingFormal methods are a niche tool; property-based testing is the one most engineers should adopt, and stopping there is a fine place to stop.

    Their wordsI love formal methods, but I think it's a fairly niche tool for most people and I think like property-based testing is in general going to be useful for more people.

    ↗Formal methods with Hillel Wayneyoutube.com 17th of 24 in this recording

  2. 6 years earlier

  3. Our readingSoftware is not less rigorous than traditional engineering; its record-keeping and automated verification are better than most of that field's.

    Their wordsPlenty would kill to get the same kind of automated testing we treat as a given.

    ↗We Are Not Specialhillelwayne.com 3rd of 7 in this piece

  4. 2 years earlier

  5. Our readingMost distributed-systems outages would have been prevented by slightly more comprehensive ordinary testing, not by better tools.

    Their wordsIn fact, the vast majority of distributed systems outages could have been prevented by slightly-more-comprehensive testing.

    ↗Why Don't People Use Formal Methods?hillelwayne.com 4th of 5 in this piece

  6. 16 months earlier

  7. Our readingRobert C. Martin's advice makes code worse, because it dismisses every correctness technique that is not unit testing.

    Their wordsUncle Bob gives terrible advice. Following it will make your code worse.

    ↗Uncle Bob and Silver Bulletshillelwayne.com 1st of 3 in this piece

  9. Our readingProgrammer discipline is the wrong answer to software defects: the way to reduce them is to change the system so mistakes are harder to make and easier to catch.

    Their wordsRather, the best way to reduce the volume and severity of mistakes is to adjust the system itself.

    ↗Uncle Bob and Silver Bulletshillelwayne.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

  11. Our readingUnit tests alone give little confidence in a program, because the mistakes people actually make are not the conveniently unit-testable ones.

    Their wordsBut unit tests don't give you much confidence in your code.

    ↗Uncle Bob and Silver Bulletshillelwayne.com 3rd of 3 in this piece