Re: Using reverse execution

[Stan Shebs <shebs at apple dot com>]

Michael Snyder wrote:

> [...] I have a target audience of engineers to whom
> I've been trying to "sell" reverse execution -- and I have
> a working implementation that I can demo, live, and a real-life
> bug that I can show to be easy to debug with reverse execution,
> and pretty damn hard otherwise.  And the majority of them will
> go "wow", but they aren't jumping up and down demanding access
> to this cool facility.

This is a really important data point.

> I think this is a familiar concept to us, but an unfamiliar
> one for many users, and they may have to get their hands on
> it and actually use it and play with it before they start to
> get a feel for its true power.

My intuition is that this is the most accurate description of
the current reality. It makes things harder for us, because
it means we have to make a really good first impression; a lame
or unreliable implementation of reversal will have users hearing
through the grapevine that they should avoid it or that it is
useless, and many people will never even give it that first try.

Stan