New system tools this year

Although it'll still be a couple of months away, I'll be releasing new and updated system tools this year, reflecting the substantial improvements in software resources and practice in the 6+ years since they were last released.

Updated version of Quality Matters #5 posted

I've just reposted a re-edited version of the fifth instalment of Quality Matters, "Exceptions: The Worst Form of Error Handling, Apart From All The Others", on the Synesis Software website. Most were typos or improvements in phrasing, found as I'm rereading as part of the research for the seventh instalment, which will hopefully be ready for this month's deadline for the Feb 2011 instalment of ACCU's Overload.

The one important semantic change is correcting the sentence:

"If a software entity exhibits behaviour that contradicts its design, then it makes the transition from correct or unknown to defective."

to:

"If a software entity exhibits behaviour that contradicts its design, then it makes the transition from unknown to defective."

If a software entity is correct, it has been proven to be free from defects, and therefore cannot, in and of itself, experience faults.