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Thanks for your response, Mike. Maybe I'm thinking about computing as an end itself and just too insecure to acknowledge its application aspect. Because it see

Thanks for your response, Mike. Maybe I'm thinking about computing as an end itself and just too insecure to acknowledge its application aspect. Because it seems to me that when the application becomes the end-goal then the engineering loses its value.

jeffreygoesto 5y ago
Can't find the source, I think it was a link on HN. What it said was basically "software engineering is programming over time". To me this also means read "reuse is hard". So _one_ application is not engineering, but all useful applications over time would be. =;-)
mikewarot 5y ago
When I was young, I had to have the latest version of everything, this was long before the security aspect of it. The problem with that approach is the random disruptions it creates when you focus on the tool, and not the task. You'll see stories all the time about machine shops with MS-DOS programs still in use, for example. But consider the facts, a problem was solved, that solution has worked consistently for decades, any new solution is likely to create problems, so of course it's going to stay around forever. Just don't hook it to the internet, and it will be fine. 8) Once a business need is met, you just want to keep the friction as low as possible.