Re^5: A generic biomedical data processing library

I'm sorry, "biomedical data" could mean anything. Incidence of dental caries amongst pre-schoolers; or counts of dog fascias in public parks.

And even if the data is something that could have life-threatening medical consequences, any process that relies on people not editing text files for its integrity is fundementally flawed, and an accident waiting to happen.

Anything from a drive glitch; to a command line typo; to a stray cosmic rays can cause random data errors. You better hope that where such risks are a real concern, there are better safeguards in place than a "Don't edit text files" missive.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"I'd rather go naked than blow up my ass"

Comment on Re^5: A generic biomedical data processing library

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Re^6: A generic biomedical data processing library by CountZero (Bishop) on Mar 22, 2010 at 18:40 UTC
Could mean anything indeed, but as a former lawyer and now working as a claims handler in an insurance broker's office, one tend to look at these things in the worst possible way. I have seen so many things go wrong in such expensive and tragical ways due to some stupid oversight or easily avoided sub-optimal "best practice", that I won't take any chances. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]
Re^6: A generic biomedical data processing library by spiros (Beadle) on Mar 23, 2010 at 08:58 UTC
You are both right here. Of course, when the data is of that sensitivity, only a handful of people can view them to begin with and even less can edit them. Additionally, there are many consistency and integrity checks in place.	[reply]
Re^7: A generic biomedical data processing library by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Mar 23, 2010 at 09:18 UTC
Indeed. The interesting thing here is that "the users" in this case are the vary same progammers who one has no option to "trust"() in writing the code to manipulate that same data. ()Where trust is defined as putting sufficient safeguards in place to ensure the results of their manipulations are correct. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. "I'd rather go naked than blow up my ass"	[reply]