4 ms·

Not sure if being sarcastic .. Expectations might have increased , quality hasnt.

onemoreact 15y ago
Quality and Scope are always at odds. Comparing a MUD to an MMORPG you might find programers producing similar amounts of bugs, but individual productivity has clearly increased.
- kraemate 15y ago
  If you define individual productivity as the amount of misuse of hardware resources , then yes. In all other cases, no. A few pretentious programmers wanting fast hardware to play with is one thing, but demanding it and proclaiming that programmer productivity has increased and thus all programmers deserve the best possible hardware is laughable at best.
  - mtogo 15y ago
    Should we build buildings with primitive tools that we used hundreds or thousands of years ago? I mean, builders back then built things just fine, we're so spoiled with our power tools and motor vehicles.
    - gaius 15y ago
      What they built lasted until now, that's how we know about it. How much modern stuff would last even a hundred years, let alone a thousand?
      - icebraining 15y ago
        Exactly what has lasted a thousand years without maintenance? I live in a country with very old constructions (Portugal) and all have had regular (heavy) restoration works across the years.
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    Feel free to limit yourself to green screen terminal, but good luck building a GUI. Anyway, fixating on HW like it has meaning outside of the software that runs is a common misconception, and assuming there is any reason to buy a PC with less than 200$ of ram is simply premature optimization. Today that works out to 16GB, in the past that may have been less than 16KB, but that does not mean 16KB was enough just that it was a point of diminishing returns. PS: Assuming that the same assumptions will always apply even as HW gets 1000 times as fast is ridiculous. I know someone that prevented 1 million in computing hardware from being purchased due to a few weeks work. Today doing those same optimizations would be a waste of time because computing power has literally increased by that much.
mb21 15y ago
I disagree. I think the overall quality of software built by software professionals has increased over time. It's the natural maturation of an industry (although I believe we are far from mature).

Quality and Scope are always at odds. Comparing a MUD to an MMORPG you might find programers producing similar amounts of bugs, but individual productivity has clearly increased.

kraemate 15y ago
If you define individual productivity as the amount of misuse of hardware resources , then yes. In all other cases, no. A few pretentious programmers wanting fast hardware to play with is one thing, but demanding it and proclaiming that programmer productivity has increased and thus all programmers deserve the best possible hardware is laughable at best.
- mtogo 15y ago
  Should we build buildings with primitive tools that we used hundreds or thousands of years ago? I mean, builders back then built things just fine, we're so spoiled with our power tools and motor vehicles.
  - gaius 15y ago
    What they built lasted until now, that's how we know about it. How much modern stuff would last even a hundred years, let alone a thousand?
    - icebraining 15y ago
      Exactly what has lasted a thousand years without maintenance? I live in a country with very old constructions (Portugal) and all have had regular (heavy) restoration works across the years.
- onemoreact 15y ago
  Feel free to limit yourself to green screen terminal, but good luck building a GUI. Anyway, fixating on HW like it has meaning outside of the software that runs is a common misconception, and assuming there is any reason to buy a PC with less than 200$ of ram is simply premature optimization. Today that works out to 16GB, in the past that may have been less than 16KB, but that does not mean 16KB was enough just that it was a point of diminishing returns. PS: Assuming that the same assumptions will always apply even as HW gets 1000 times as fast is ridiculous. I know someone that prevented 1 million in computing hardware from being purchased due to a few weeks work. Today doing those same optimizations would be a waste of time because computing power has literally increased by that much.

mb21 15y ago

I disagree. I think the overall quality of software built by software professionals has increased over time. It's the natural maturation of an industry (although I believe we are far from mature).