"... you find only an external skin which is at the same time a structural component and the tank wall ... Engineering has two phases, structuring and integrati

"... you find only an external skin which is at the same time a structural component and the tank wall ... Engineering has two phases, structuring and integration: we ought not to forget either one..." That could be interpreted in non-horrifying ways. Sure, the cost of a function call (especially with a modern compiler that can intelligently inline) is negligible in most cases compared with the engineering benefits it offers. But what about cases where it's less clear? In databases, there are constantly cycles between: Cycle phase 0: Abstract Storage: separate storage from computation to make the database system easier to test, replace, and reconfigure. Cycle phase 1: Push computation down to storage: wow, look how much better performance we can get if we intermingle storage and computation! GOTO cycle phase 0.