
Ask HN: What's most important when creating software? - baccheion
Also, how would you the following be ordered (most important to least): clarity, brevity, elegance, correctness, simplicity, speed, robustness, and efficiency? Why?
======
tgflynn
There's no way to answer that question in general. It all depends on how the
software is going to be used, the goals of those who are developing it, the
environment in which it is being developed and probably many other factors.

------
greenyoda
Correctness is certainly the most important. If the software does the wrong
thing, who cares if it's elegant, robust, fast, etc.?

~~~
tgflynn
I agree that correctness is usually most important but even that's relative
because with the possible exception of some life critical software virtually
all software has bugs and a certain bug density is essentially tolerated in
the software industry.

~~~
greenyoda
Yes, all software has bugs, but some bugs are much more serious than others.
For example, if my tax software had a bug that made it install updates very
slowly, I might tolerate it. But if it had a bug that caused the wrong numbers
to be sent to the IRS, I wouldn't use it no matter how beautiful and fast the
software was.

Hopefully, when we make the decision to release software, the bugs we
knowingly leave in the product will be merely annoying and not cause harm to
the user.

------
gjvc
that it's a pleasure, not a chore, to use

