Okay, I kind of have to brag here... :-)

[degrawj]

One of my best friends, who I have known since Kindergarten, just got noted in an article by the AP. His picture is in the story. I just kind of wanted to brag about it because I'm really happy that my friend has gone so far with his career, and he's just beginning. He's only been at graduate school for two years now, already been published two or three times, and now he's in the mainstream (kind of) press. :-) I just think it's neat, that's all.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html

Researchers seek simpler software debugging

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- 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.

Their work is part of a larger, nationwide project -- called End Users Shaping Effective Software, or EUSES -- to make computers friendlier for everyday users by changing everything from how they look to how they act.

Ultimately, perhaps, error messages will be easier to understand than "general protection fault" or "fatal exceptions."

You may not know it, but chances are you, too, are a programmer. If you've created a spreadsheet, made macros in Excel or Word or used a Web application to fetch news about your hobby or favorite celebrity, you've programmed.

The rest of the article can be read by clicking the link, if you're interested.

[maleficent]

that's cool -- kudos to him....

[Cynthetiq]

wonderful! good for him!

[unoaman]

Fantastic...You know, most of us are quick to help friends when the need arises, but how many of us brag on them when they deserve it? If you have a friend you can applaud, go for it, that should be the other half of the friendship equation.