Chapter 9
Correctness and Robustness
COMPUTER PROGRAMS THAT FAIL are much too common.
Programs are fragile. A tiny error can cause a program to misbehave or
crash. Most of us are familiar with this from our own experience with
computers. And we've all heard stories about software glitches that cause
spacecraft to crash, telephone service to fail, and, in a few cases, people
to die.
Programs don't have to be as bad as they are. It might well be impossible
to guarantee that programs are problem-free, but careful programming and
well-designed programming tools can help keep the problems
to a minimum. This chapter will look at issues of correctness and robustness
of programs. We'll also look at exceptions,
one of the tools that Java provides as an aid in writing robust programs.
Contents of Chapter 9:
