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> It’s a lot easier to maintain an orthogonal design when your software isn’t being used. Software that gets used becomes less orthogonal and develops diagonal
by dmethvin 14y ago
> It’s a lot easier to maintain an orthogonal design when your software isn’t being used. Software that gets used becomes less orthogonal and develops diagonal shortcuts.
Yep, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Human language is exactly the same way. Irregular verbs, contractions, and slang are all diagonal shortcuts.
There may be a few unneeded adornments to some Unix utilities, I agree. But remember that the `ls -l` that you might have typed in 1980 on a minicomputer running BSD still has the same output as the `ls -l` from a PC running Linux in 2012. That's just awesome backcompat right there.
- andrewem 14y agoI really liked the phrase "diagonal shortcuts" from the OP. It brought to mind a physical metaphor for what's meant by software having only orthogonal functions: on a college campus they usually pave orthogonal sidewalks, and inevitably you find diagonal paths where students have cut through the grass and trampled it down to bare dirt. It's ugly in some sense, but it's what everyone wants.
- dmethvin 14y agoYeah, a literal case of voting with your feet.