Quote

Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting.

Wietse Venema

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Wietse Venema
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: January 1
Computer Scientist
Physicist
Holland
Wietse Zweitze Venema
Even
Software
Presence
Challenge
Safe
Challenges
Interesting
Makes
Writing
Bugs

More quotes by Wietse Venema

Image
As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included.
Wietse Venema
Image
Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance.
Wietse Venema
Image
The Postfix security model is based on keeping software simple and stupid.
Wietse Venema
Image
Most of the effort in the software business goes into the maintenance of code that already exists.
Wietse Venema
Image
Sure, but competition is good for the user.
Wietse Venema
Image
Qmail out of the box works fine, so people will want to use it regardless of licensing restrictions, even when the software does not ship with their system software.
Wietse Venema
Image
However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions.
Wietse Venema
Image
Adding functionality is not just a matter of adding code.
Wietse Venema
Image
I want to avoid locking people into solutions that work only with Postfix. People should have a choice in what software they want to use with Postfix, be it anti-virus or otherwise.
Wietse Venema
Image
Coming back to the topic of computer security, the TCP Wrapper is an example of such a safety net. I wrote it when my systems were under attack by someone who appeared to walk through walls.
Wietse Venema
Image
Like all software, Qmail can survive only when it keeps up with changing requirements.
Wietse Venema
Image
Defect-free software does not exist.
Wietse Venema
Image
The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems.
Wietse Venema
Image
This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended.
Wietse Venema
Image
In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems.
Wietse Venema
Image
Postfix keeps running even if one Postfix process dies Windows requires that someone restarts the service.
Wietse Venema
Image
Windows favors multi-threading, which means that a service is implemented by one single process.
Wietse Venema
Image
At the time the Sendmail program had a very poor reputation with respect to security, with four root vulnerabilities per year for two successive years.
Wietse Venema
Image
For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way.
Wietse Venema
Image
When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause.
Wietse Venema