16 ms·
I expect things to just work and I expect them to work for a reasonable lifespan. I often think that a piece of software ought to live as long as a car, and for
by egwor 9y ago
I expect things to just work and I expect them to work for a reasonable lifespan. I often think that a piece of software ought to live as long as a car, and for something commercially created (e.g. costs as much as a house) then it ought to last at least a generation (30years).
I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. In a closed system this should be doable.
edit: one of the reasons I think this is because we are supposed to be engineers, and other engineering disciplines do it (and their disciplines involve computes too). Consider jets and boats.
- paublyrne 9y agoJets, boats, and cars all require regular servicing. Parts need fixing and updating and it isn't one and done. The allegory isn't exactly the same as software updates but the allegory of software systems to cars isn't exact either.
- gmueckl 9y agoOur devices do not normally need servicing. They do age, but this is compensated.
- bpizzi 9y agoI get what you say. But are you, let's say, a Catia ISO programmer who has been thrown as a leader of a project team which purpose is to buy some piece of a tier software/project that will automagically cut your programming time by half? He may be an engineer, whatever that means, but still: the average joe in that position will not spend a single second on thinking if he expects the solution he's buying to work for a reasonable lifespan. He's been thrown in a project, that's all. If you force him to state a requirement on the expected lifespan, he will surely say 'Well, as long as possible seems good to me'. Disclaimer: statistics applies here, of course some people will care, but I'm speaking about the 80%, if not more.