The main point, that more eyeballs doesn't necessarily lead to more bugs found and fixed, is a good one. Reading code, or text, specifically with the intent of finding errors is very hard, and is itself an error-prone activity. Anyone who has had to do close proof-reading knows this. It's hard work, so our brains are constantly fighting us and trying to "relax" back to a higher level of abstraction. That's one of the reasons I read the Coverity post with some interest. We humans are hopelessly ill-suited for these tasks, and we need all the help we can get.
Comments
The main point, that more eyeballs doesn't necessarily lead to more bugs found and fixed, is a good one. Reading code, or text, specifically with the intent of finding errors is very hard, and is itself an error-prone activity. Anyone who has had to do close proof-reading knows this. It's hard work, so our brains are constantly fighting us and trying to "relax" back to a higher level of abstraction. That's one of the reasons I read the Coverity post with some interest. We humans are hopelessly ill-suited for these tasks, and we need all the help we can get.