[ome-devel] Reliability issues

[Joshua Moore]

Ilya Goldberg wrote:

> You're asking us to venture into very dangerous territory on a public 
> list, so I'll say this up front:  We do not make any guarantees about 
> the reliability of this software. 

Didn't mean to start boiling the tar myself. Proof was written "proof" 
for a reason. :)

> We have taken great pains (its almost a religion) to prevent data loss 
> and maintain data integrity.  The data is protected at the lowest 
> level by the RDBMS.  We make full use of transactional isolation and 
> referential integrity constraints, and have done so from day one.  In 
> principle, you can pull the plug on your back-end at any point, and 
> the database will not be corrupt or be left in an invalid state (a 
> partial analysis, for example). 

Super. This is the kind of statement I needed.

> ...Only experience over many years with millions of images will give 
> us a feel for reliability, but there will never be "proof".  

Sure, but can someone already make a statement about 100,000s of images? 
Just how far have we or anyone pushed it? With time, of course, these 
statements will be adjusted, but what can we say now. Kind of like a 
"746 days without a serious injury" sign up above our headquarters, it 
certainly doesn't mean--logically, legally, or otherwise--that an injury 
won't happen tomorrow.

> For our own good as developers, I don't think we should make any 
> statements about reliability. 

Understood, but non-binding reassurances, opinions, personal experiences 
etc. are all very nice. Perhaps we need to build up a user testimonial page.

Josh.