[SystemSafety] Does "reliable" mean "safe" and or "secure" or neither?

[Michael J. Pont]

Ross,

I know what you mean.

Overall, I think this is a great list (and I think that PBL deserves a medal
for the work he does on it).

I have learned to accept that some people on this list (and some of the most
vocal) seem incapable of accepting that any system can be created without
the use of formal methods (and I've been labelled "incompetent" by one vocal
member of the list for daring to question this orthodoxy).  Such attitudes
suggest to me that some people need to get out more.

In terms of the most recent discussion (that gave rise to your comment),
"software reliability" doesn't make sense to me as a label (because the
software does not change / wear out).  I now translate this phase as
"software robustness" or similar and then the world makes a little more
sense.

Overall, people on this list sometimes have a tendency to argue their
positions forcefully and directly.  I don't think that anyone has suffered
too much from this.  However, I suspect that more people would contribute if
they didn't feel that they may be shot down for saying the wrong thing.

Simply my take (I'm sure that others will have a different view ...).

Michael.

Michael J. Pont
SafeTTy Systems Ltd.


-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety
[mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of
Ross Hannan - Sigma
Sent: 24 April 2016 00:20
To: 'Peter Bernard Ladkin' <ladkin at rvs.uni-bielefeld.de>; 'The System Safety
List' <systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Does "reliable" mean "safe" and or "secure" or
neither?

I really don't understand why this list needs to degrade in to abuse on a
regular basis and why certain members of this list seem to see others as
fodder for these abusive attacks.

Ross Hannan
Some Sort of Engineer

-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety
[mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of
Peter Bernard Ladkin
Sent: 23 April 2016 19:27
To: The System Safety List
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Does "reliable" mean "safe" and or "secure" or
neither?

On 2016-04-23 19:43 , Nick Tudor wrote:
> DO-178C

In the absence of a complete sentence, let me suggest one.

---- DO178C sees no need to assign any meaning to the term "software
reliability".

It's fine for some industry consortium to find it has no use for a specific
concept. RTCA likely has no use for the notion of a cup of tea, either
(BS6008). But that doesn't mean it makes any sense to argue that there isn't
any such thing as a cup of tea.

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld,
33594 Bielefeld, Germany Je suis Charlie
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de






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