The Quality for Software

• (According to Richard Gabriel)

• It was not written to unrealistic deadline

• Any bad parts were repaired during the maintenance or are being repaired now

• If it is small, it was written by an extraordinary person, someone I would like as a friend; if it is large, it was not designed by one person, but over time in a slow, careful, incremental way

• If I look at any small part of it, I can see what is going on

• If I look at any large part in overview, I can see what is going on

• It is like a fractal, in which every level of details is as locally coherent and as well thought as any other level

• Every part of the code is transparently clear - there are no sections that are obscure in order to gain efficiency

• Everything about it seems to be familiar

• I can imagine changing it, adding some functionality

• I am not afraid of it, I will remember it

Notes:

Richard Gabriel, based on Alexander's theory, wrote “Patterns of Software”, a beautiful book about the Quality Without A Name when applied to software.

“Patterns of Software” is available at http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf