Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software

Science News,  Jan 20, 2007  

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DREAMING IN CODE: TWO Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One quest for Transcendent Software

SCOTT ROSENBERG

Our modern lives rely on the proper functioning of billions of lines of software code to run everything from laptops to on-board automobile computers to the latest toasters and toys. It can be a daunting responsibility for programmers to create software that serves a unique function and that works consistently. Rosenberg, journalist and cofounder of Salon.com, gives an inside view of the evolving process of software development. Why is it so hard to get computers to think like people? Why are bugs a persistent problem in computer programs? Rosenberg surveys the history of programming successes and programming failures. Rosenberg spent 3 years following a group of programmers working on software for a personal-information-management program called Chandler. The author recounts the many advances and missteps that the innovative programmers made as they tried to reconcile human behavior with a computer's operation. Crown, 2007, 400 p., hardcover, $25.95.

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