The DOD COBOL compiler validation system
George N. Baird · 1972
The ability to benchmark or validate software to ensure that design specifications are satisfied is an extremely difficult task. Test data, generally designed by the creators of said software, is generally biased toward a specific goal and tend not to cover many of the possibilities of combinations and interactions. The philosophy of suggesting that "a programmer will never do . . ." or "this particular situation will never happen" is altogether absurd. First, "never" is an extremely long time and secondly, the Hagel theorem of programming states that "if it can be done, whether absurd or not, one or more programmers will more than likely try it."