What is the size of this list?

[goertzel_karen at bah.com (Goertzel, Karen [USA])]

As far as I'm concerned, being able to understand English is crucial to meaningful interpretation of literature written 
in that language, and being able to write and speak English with mastery is crucial to effective self-expression as a 
critic. So English mastery is not just "incidental and important", it is absolutely vital to the success of the English 
major who aspires to more than mediocrity.

I feel the same way about software development. Writing software sloppily results in software the functional objectives 
of which can be subverted, either accidentally or intentionally. Such software cannot be said to satisfy those 
objectives, and thus it must be seen as failing, at least partially. It's only because we have accepted such partial 
failure for as long as there has been software that our standards for what we consider "goodness" for software are so 
poor. If we applied the same poor standards to safety-critical mechanical systems a heck of a lot more of us would be 
reading this mailing list from hospital beds, nursing home rooms, or the afterlife. That's if they even have Internet 
access in the afterlife.

Karen Mercedes Goertzel, CISSP
Associate
703.698.7454
goertzel_karen at bah.com
________________________________________
From: sc-l-bounces at securecoding.org [sc-l-bounces at securecoding.org] On Behalf Of Matt Bishop [bishop at 
cs.ucdavis.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:27 AM
To: Secure Coding List
Subject: Re: [SC-L] What is the size of this list?

...So I agree with what Rob posted, and I did have one thought. Is
writing good English a "minor" objective of an English major?
Probably, in the sense English curricula focus on interpretation of
literature, literary criticism, and other aspects of literature. But
it's an essential one. So perhaps "incidental and important" describes
how I feel better than "minor".

Matt