Coverity used their Prevent static code scanning tool to find defects in several open source projects. Once found, most projects weere quick to make the fixes. Now Perl is at zero-detected defects.
Let's not get too excited though. The Perl Foundation's recent news item makes it sound like Coverity is claiming Perl is bug free. All we really know is that all of the detectable issues that Coverity's tool checked are no longer there. Even then, the term "defect" is rather broad, and like our home-grown "kwalitee", isn't the true measure but at least something a computer can check.
It's certainly nice to be Coverity-defect free, but let's not look like we're trying to sell a bunch of marketing bullshit by claiming more than that really is. Indeed, Andy Lester reported a bug in Prevent, and I'm sure the Coverity folks are eating their own dogfood.
We really don't need Coverity's results to let people know that Perl is stable. It's nice that Coverity says nice things about Perl, but it's really the hard work of the community and the testing nazis that's the news :)
Re:Press release
brian_d_foy on 2006-05-05T23:04:15
Well, I don't think the results really say that p5p at the top of code practices either. I'm not saying that it's not true, but it doesn't logically follow. You have to make a bit of a leap to conclude that,
The trouble is trying to sound like a press release and spinning the results. It makes it sound like every embellished marketing claim companies make in press releases.
Re:Press release
petdance on 2006-05-05T23:20:58
Yes, it sounds press-releasey. That was the intent. I'm trying to get press in the big rags.
