• bitchkat@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Warnings and errors are negatives not positive. So if it generates a warning that is OK, it’s a false negative.

    • pantyhosewimp@lemmynsfw.com
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      3 months ago

      Just so you know, if your doctor calls and tells you that your HIV test is positive, you probably shouldn’t run out and celebrate.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s why I said false negative. The medical test is testing for the presence of a disease. So if they find the disease is considered a positive test (it found what it was looking for). For static analysis on code, its the opposite. Its testing if your code is free of issues that it can detect. If it finds no issues, then the test was positive. If does find issues, the test failed and each issue is a negative that contributed to the test failing.

        • pantyhosewimp@lemmynsfw.com
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          3 months ago

          I’m not debating. It is not a matter of opinion. I’m doing you the courtesy of informing you how the entire rest of the world uses the term.

          If action A looks for thing X, and it finds thing X, then the test is positive. If action A fails to find thing X, then the test is negative.

          If action A claims to find thing X, but later confirmation determines that thing X is not really there, then this situation is called “false positive”.

          If action A claims fails to find thing X, but later confirmation determines that thing X is actually there, then this situation is called “false negative”.

          That thing X may subjectively be considered an unwanted outcome has **nothing ** to do with the terms used.