Reliability First - Applications

What does reliability mean in computer science? Speaking about an application, how can we say it is reliable? I don't know if there is a shared opinion but mine has maturated after a scary situation.

Some years ago, on my previous workplace, we created a huge file with a very powerful and even more expensive third party software. But some seconds after having pressed the save button, the software crashed. Panic. We searched for the saved file and we found it. Don't panic. So we restarted the powerful-and-expensive-third-party-software to reopen the file but it failed. We tried several times even on other PCs without success. The (binary and proprietary) file seemed to be corrupted. Okay, panic!


Fortunately we also owned a licence of a similar software, much less powerful and much cheaper (about twenty times cheaper). We had nothing to lose so we tried to open the file with this cheap software and... it worked! All our job was there. So we saved the file with a different name in the cheap software and eventually we were able to open it with the expensive software.

After that incident I have a clear idea of what reliability means when speaking about applications. And you?

Image created with GIFYouTube. Scene taken from movie "Airplane II: The Sequel".

Details and Respect Make the Difference (for Me)

How many weather apps there are in the application store of your smartphone? And how many virtual keyboards? And browsers? There are millions of clones out there but you are using that particular app and you don't want to change it. Why?

[ Laziness may be an answer, especially if you are a developer like me ;-) ]

Jokes aside, often I like to see if there are alternatives to the apps I use everyday. Sometimes I find good things but most of the time I keep using my old apps. So, which are the reasons for (not) changing? For me, mainly two: details and respect.

Usually the main feature is something that works pretty well in all clones. Any feed reader is supposed to let you read your favorite blogs. But only few let you have a customizable sharing button. It's a very small feature, a simple detail, but to me it's absolutely convenient.

Honesty. Trust. Respect. Love.
Good rule to follow in business and in life.
Image by Zaneology
But before trying a new app and evaluate its details, I check its permissions. I consider them a form of respect. Why do a weather app want to access my contacts? Why do a dictionary need to know to my position?

I know the answer: nothing is free. But this is a wrong answer. It would be different if the developer tells me: I need to access your GPS data in order to propose custom ads and keep the app free.

Maybe he is just bribing me but al least he don't think I'm so stupid to not understand that the permissions the app is aking for are not related to its features.