Laws of Software Development

Walch’s law of Blogging and Podcasting:

E=I^2 - Ego equals Influence squared

Greenspun’s Tenth Rule seems appropriate here as well: “Every sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.”

Dr. Robert Lob’s Law:

Whatever message you are trying to convey, the listener will only hear what is relevant to their current thought process.

also known as Bob Lob Law

I like Flon’s Axiom - very good to keep in mind before making generalizations about a programming language.

Love it! Esp. Joy’s Law!

~Mad Cow

Two more laws from the days of yore:

1) Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool would want to use it.

2) Any program over 100 instructions can be simplified by 3 instructions (without losing any functionality).

-RDH

Conway’s Law resonates with me. I’ve spent too much time working with a POS system that was 20 years out of date when it was first coded. I have recently discovered that it was coded to look just like the system that it was supposed to replace. Now, I know what your thinking, and this is an awful way to create software. But, I work in financial services so predictable results with minimal risk (read: standard deviation) over decades is actually a very good way for my company to operate.

I once saw a “law” attributed to a system engineer regarding Windows Live Search and Microsoft’s attempting to build a system to rival google.

It went something like…

“You build a large system from small *working* systems, not from scratch.”

Later, I tried to find the source but couldn’t. Anyone recall hearing that before? If so, who was the source?

Check the quote again on Hoare’s Law. It’s “program”, not “problem”.

@QrazyQat: In the chart, if a breezier paraphrasing the law exists, I used that instead. Hence, wherever possible, I linked the name of each law to a page that had a more technically correct description (including formulae, where applicable).

For the curious, Occam’s Razor is typically phrased in Latin as entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translated, means “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”.

The same germ of thought that gave rise to Occam’s Razor also gave rise to Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s line:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Scape’s Law:

What ever it is that hits the fan will not be distributed evenly.

I always see the “ninety-ninety” law written this way, and it makes no sense:

“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”

It should be:

“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 10% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”

Or am I missing something?

worth adding - Schneier’s Law (Bruce Schneier):
“Any person can invent a security system so clever that she or he can’t think of how to break it.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneier’s_Law

The 9th law of unemployment
The less stimulating your life is the more interesting baseball becomes.

1) Since solutions could be said to be the dual of problems, an imaginative Haskeller may call programs “co-problems”.

2) I have a law of my own. It’s Bitwize’s Corollary to Greenspun’s Tenth Rule: “Any sufficiently complicated Common Lisp or Scheme program will eventually be rewritten in C++, Java, or Python.”

Back in my misspent and paranoiac youth, I coined a theory that goes:

Walter’s Theory Of Police:
If you are traveling by car and see a police patrol car, the odds of you seeing another police car before your trip is over goes up by some tangible amount. If you see a second police car, your odds of seeing a third police car before the end of your trip increase again.
==

I was never brash enough to call it a Law.

@Don: Or am I missing something?

Apparently, a sense of irony. (-:

Don McArthur asks:

“Or am I missing something?”

A sense of humor?

@Don:

Many people don’t catch that bit, but the law is “correct” as originally written. The “mistake” is actually a second gem hiding in the same law. Taking all of the cuteness out of the original phrasing, the law would become something like:

“The first 90% of the code takes 90% of the estimated development time. The last 10% of the code also takes 90% of the estimated development time. As a result, the actual development is nearly twice (180%) of the estimate.”

Norman’s Standard Estimate

It will take two weeks plus an extra two months for every meeting I have to attend about it.

I don’t know who came up with this:

The success of a technology depends on how useful it is for money-making or porn.

You forgot Furrygoat’s Law:

http://www.furrygoat.com/2005/05/furrygoats_law.html

“Every program attempts to expand until it can read RSS feeds.”

Don’t know if he wrote it, but it was in “Computer Lib/Dream Machines” by Ted Nelson:

“Any idiot can learn to use computers, and many do”

I’m looking for the law that says:

87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Any clue who’s law that is?

I love this one :

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.
– Chuck Reid

I think this law is relevant:

Weinberg’s Law: If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. (Jerry Weinberg)

@Alfred,

While we’re on the FFFB’s, don’t forget:

Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.

Don’t forget Cole’s Law: Thinly sliced cabbage

Stigler’s Law: No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.

Discovered by Robert Merton, named by Stephen Stigler.

Wiio’s first law:

Communication usually fails, except by accident.

Others here:

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/wiio.html

Steven

All Software Companies Fail. So if you are ever in one which is worth anything, sell.

http://ohair-sherman.com/Andrew/lundblad.html

Poor William, blamed for a razor he didn’t invent and that nobody ever seems to get right, while his contribution to the idea of universal rights goes unnoticed.

I guess that’s what you get for being a heretic.

(I’ve always wondered how people ‘translate’ it, when he never wrote it down. It was probably Dun Scotus.)

I hereby declare Strathmann’s Law the winner!

Orth’s First Law of Programming

“Never modify bad code, it just gets worse.”

Corollaries of Orth’s First Law of Programming

“Always start with a clean piece of paper.”
“There is no cure for bad code.”

Orth’s Second Law of Programming

“No matter how simple the task, it will consume more time than estimated if it must be repeated many, many times.”

And finally, I can’t take credit for this one because it predates me by decades if not centuries….

“There’s never time to do it right in the first place, but there’s always time to do it over when it doesn’t work.”

@ Andy B.

Yes! Thanks much. Oh, and BTW, here is the complete quote…

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.

A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.”

Hofstadter’s Law has one ‘ti’ too many…

“Whatever the state of a project, the time a project-leader will estimate for comple_ti_tion is constant.”

(And I’ll bet that’s not the only law he could put his name to.)

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

Nice Collection…

Nice way to divert ur mind from - if then else looops

Richards’ Laws of Data Security:
1. Don’t buy a computer.
2. If you must buy a computer, don’t turn it on.

To whom it may concern: I think Fred Strathmann is an old friend of mine - from grade school. I wonder if you have an e-mail address for him? For myself, I teach philosophy, psychology and mathematics at a few places in singapore so it is hard for me to track people down in the USA. Sincerely, Richard McD

Not specifically programming related, but for security in general (more and more relevant to programming everyday in the Web 2.0 world):

Spafford’s first principle of security administration - “If you have responsibility for security but have no authority to set rules or punish violators, your own role in the organization is to take the blame when something big goes wrong.”

link:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1679514,00.asp

“In the chart, if a breezier paraphrasing the law exists, I used that instead. Hence, wherever possible, I linked the name of each law to a page that had a more technically correct description (including formulae, where applicable).”

The link part is good, but the paraphrase you used is simply incorrect. It’s very common for people to use this incorrect description of Occam’s Razor, but that does not make it more correct. Occam’s Razor does not say anything about an idea being correct or even likely to be correct, just that you probably want to go with it until the evidence favors something else.

“If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”

Apparently has a medical origin, but very relevant.

Europium’s Exhortation: “One’s reach should always exceed one’s grasp.”

Europium’s Corollary: “The manager you work for will inevitably be the one who pressured his neurosurgeon into performing the six-hour operation in three.”

Heath’s Law of Authority:

If you detect an authoritarian presence, it’s too late.

Corollary: If you see the traffic cop, don’t bother to slow down