Reply #36: Apparently it can be very hard! [View All]

[Darvocet]

Which is why I've never trusted these new-fangled electric computer- thingies. Actually, milkyway makes a very good point that I've not heard mentioned until now. Even computers from the 1950's would have no trouble with the type of math involved in adding up votes. Anyone who has studied computer science has probably written a similar program very early into his or her education. One of the first or second assignments given at the Univ. I attended was a vote counting simulation program of all things. It certainly does not put much of a strain on a computer's memory resources. Basically involves adding 1 to a number, storing the new number and again adding 1 to the number. Obviously the programs actually in use for the election were a bit more involved than that, but nothing terribly difficult for anyone in that field. The types of "glitches" I have been hearing about, if true, seems a little odd. These types of bugs ("glitches") would be very unlikely to pass through even very remedial testing. Also, while bugs are quite common before a program is finished, these particular ones don't strike me as the type most software designers would be most likely make even before debugging (not to be confused with buggery, which is a completely different sort of program I understand).