3 ms·

Took me a bit, but my take here is -- satire by someone who's actually completely given up on the idea of making software better? Where you make fun of a goal b

by jrm4 4y ago

Took me a bit, but my take here is -- satire by someone who's actually completely given up on the idea of making software better? Where you make fun of a goal because, deep down, you believe that you'll never be good enough to attain it? That's the only read that makes this make sense to me.

xeyownt 4y ago
Not sure it is completely satirical. Some stuff about SW design is true. Some design criteria are really dogmatic for instance, losing connection with the end value of the product. Also top futurist programming priorities looks quite ok and an ideal to achieve.
whstl 4y ago
Is it really about being "good enough"? With the crazy amount of interdependency between applications and system software, is it even possible for a single person to solve the issues enumerated by the author? Sure this seems to be written in the 90s, but even back them that seemed impossible. Even luminaries like Alan Kay have been trying (with projects like Viewpoints Research Institute) to make computer software "simpler" (for lack of a better word), but is it really feasible when the whole industry is moving in the complete opposite direction? A lot of people can make a fast and simple enough Operating System. A lot did when back in the day at https://osdev.org/ https://osdev.org/, and some probably still do. The problem is "drawing the rest of the owl": the apps.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  Honestly the rest of the owl is drivers, not applications. The favorite sports of programmers are rewriting things from scratch and porting DOOM. Not to mention that we have virtualization concepts built in to our modern architectures anyway. If your OS is good and works on their hardware people will get software working on it. The problem is that it won't work on their hardware without an army of people writing drivers. Even Linux has driver issues despite having huge numbers of people working on it. Arguably that's a bit self inflicted because they insist on having everything in-tree, but still.
  - whstl 4y ago
    Yep, that's a great point. Not to mention a lot of apps today are web, so just porting a browser (and Doom!) is enough for lots of cases. I also agree with your point about Linux.

by jrm4 4y ago

xeyownt 4y ago

Not sure it is completely satirical. Some stuff about SW design is true. Some design criteria are really dogmatic for instance, losing connection with the end value of the product. Also top futurist programming priorities looks quite ok and an ideal to achieve.

whstl 4y ago

Is it really about being "good enough"? With the crazy amount of interdependency between applications and system software, is it even possible for a single person to solve the issues enumerated by the author? Sure this seems to be written in the 90s, but even back them that seemed impossible. Even luminaries like Alan Kay have been trying (with projects like Viewpoints Research Institute) to make computer software "simpler" (for lack of a better word), but is it really feasible when the whole industry is moving in the complete opposite direction? A lot of people can make a fast and simple enough Operating System. A lot did when back in the day at https://osdev.org/ https://osdev.org/, and some probably still do. The problem is "drawing the rest of the owl": the apps.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Honestly the rest of the owl is drivers, not applications. The favorite sports of programmers are rewriting things from scratch and porting DOOM. Not to mention that we have virtualization concepts built in to our modern architectures anyway. If your OS is good and works on their hardware people will get software working on it. The problem is that it won't work on their hardware without an army of people writing drivers. Even Linux has driver issues despite having huge numbers of people working on it. Arguably that's a bit self inflicted because they insist on having everything in-tree, but still.
- whstl 4y ago
  Yep, that's a great point. Not to mention a lot of apps today are web, so just porting a browser (and Doom!) is enough for lots of cases. I also agree with your point about Linux.