# Why is it reliable to use open source packages for research?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-it-reliable-to-use-open-source-packages-for-research/113823>\
**Category:** Offtopic\
**Tags:** package\
**Created:** [May 4, 2024, 3:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-it-reliable-to-use-open-source-packages-for-research/113823 "2024-05-04T03:49:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 40

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**Author:** ![yurivish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yurivish/32/307_2.png) [@yurivish](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yurivish)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 3:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-it-reliable-to-use-open-source-packages-for-research/113823/40 "2024-05-10T03:16:44Z")

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> [@mbauman](#):
>
> > [@eweiss](#):
> >
> > A quick look at some of Julia’s statistical modules shows that they have simple test cases that are used to validate the results. Since I did not do an extensive survey of what various test directories contain, they will remain unnamed.
> > 
> > Will they work properly in edge cases? Who knows.
> 
> Right, if there are concrete places where packages should have more tests, please just open an issue — or better yet, help contribute those tests directly. Contributing tests is the best way to (a) confirm that the functionality you care about works as you want and (b) ensure that it continues to work through continued development.
> 
> There’s no need for FUD here — the code itself along with the filed issues and ongoing development work is right out in the open.

Is it [FUD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt) if it’s true?

A few months ago I happened to run into a bug that’s the perfect example of exactly the scenario @eweiss outlined in his post.

I was using Julia for extremely basic data analysis – finding the maximum value in a column of a CSV file – and discovered that the answer was simply wrong. I only spotted the bug because I manually inspected the results and the number seemed to me to be too low.

I filed an [issue](https://github.com/JuliaData/CSV.jl/issues/1128) that outlined the bug, identified its cause, and contained a reproducible test case. In it, I wrote

> The implementation is [here](https://github.com/JuliaData/SentinelArrays.jl/blob/fa840f994ae821d921a9973fbd5e244d35102b1c/src/chainedvector.jl#L838) and is [tested](https://github.com/JuliaData/SentinelArrays.jl/blob/fa840f994ae821d921a9973fbd5e244d35102b1c/test/chainedvector.jl#L253), though the test only tests a simple special case for which the values and indices are exactly equal.

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