RFC 9225 - Software Defects Considered Harmful

Mel Beckman mel at beckman.org
Fri Apr 1 19:34:22 UTC 2022


This is a complete aside, but still germane given todays date.

For the youngsters among us, the title of this RFC is a sarcastic homage to one of the landmark computer papers of the 1960s: “Go To Statement Considered Harmful“, by legendary computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra. Published to the Communications of the ACM as a letter in 1968, the concept was one of the founding principles of what would become structured programming.

Typically this homage is used in parody (or, possibly, parity), and has been so dozens of times. Other famous papers snowcloning the title include “Networks Considered Harmful for Electronic Mail“, and “The Letter O Considered Harmful.“ But the sarcasm is often lost on what Ronald Reagan would call people imbued with  “youth and inexperience”.

I once submitted just such a parody article for publication entitled “IP Addresses Considered Harmful.“ A youthful, inexperienced, yet trying-to-be-helpful editor changed it to “Network Engineer Says IP Addresses are a Bad Idea.“

It’s undeniably true that youth is wasted on the young :)

 -mel beckman

On Apr 1, 2022, at 12:15 PM, Eric Kuhnke <eric.kuhnke at gmail.com> wrote:


If there's a bug in an ISP's implementation of RFC2549 carrier 'equipment', is that considered a software bug, hardware, or subject of ornithological research?



On Fri, 1 Apr 2022 at 10:40, Job Snijders via NANOG <nanog at nanog.org<mailto:nanog at nanog.org>> wrote:
Hi all,

It's super official now: no more software bugs in networking gear.
Sorry it took so long to document what the best current practise is!

Kind regards,

Job / Chris / Remco

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Date: Fri,  1 Apr 2022 10:17:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: rfc-editor at rfc-editor.org<mailto:rfc-editor at rfc-editor.org>
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Cc: drafts-update-ref at iana.org<mailto:drafts-update-ref at iana.org>, rfc-editor at rfc-editor.org<mailto:rfc-editor at rfc-editor.org>
Subject: RFC 9225 on Software Defects Considered Harmful

A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.

        RFC 9225

        Title:      Software Defects Considered Harmful
        Author:     J. Snijders,
                    C. Morrow,
                    R. van Mook
        Status:     Informational
        Stream:     Independent
        Date:       1 April 2022
        Mailbox:    job at fastly.com<mailto:job at fastly.com>,
                    morrowc at ops-netman.net<mailto:morrowc at ops-netman.net>,
                    remco at asteroidhq.com<mailto:remco at asteroidhq.com>
        Pages:      6
        Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso:   None

        I-D Tag:    draft-dont-write-bugs-00.txt

        URL:        https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9225
        DOI:        10.17487/RFC9225

This document discourages the practice of introducing software
defects in general and in network protocol implementations
specifically.  Software defects are one of the largest cost drivers
for the networking industry.  This document is intended to clarify
the best current practice in this regard.


INFORMATIONAL: This memo provides information for the Internet community.
It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.

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