Laws on Programming (Was: Re: [ Re: UNIX- Grad-daddy of all modern operating systems?])

[Darrin Chandler]

On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 09:19:59AM -0400, Matt Graham wrote:
> I'd guess the jargon term is too entrenched to be changed now.  You can 
> try, but it'll probably end up like "GNU/Linux"--not many people will 
> follow your lead.[0]

You are almost certainly correct. But that doesn't mean trying isn't
worth something, and has no effect.

> I'd also say that bugs are prevalent because users want new software 
> Right Now and they want it with More Features.  There are ways to write 
> bug-free code (formally proving every line is correct, for one).  
> However, managers would rather pay 0.5X for a program that has 10 bugs 
> and is delivered in 6 months than 5.0X for a program that has 0 bugs 
> and is delivered in 3 years.  This is the Wal-Mart Principle ("Who 
> cares if it breaks in 6 months?  It was cheap!") at work.

There's an interesting comparison to (yet again) automobiles. There was
a time, not so long ago, when the US car industry was in the business of
making new models exactly like the previous years' model but with bigger
fins. These were the salad days of the industry. They marketed their
products like crazy, and the consumers bought into it.

Later, they were forced to change by auto makers from outside the US.
The change happened because of consumers buying for value, once they had
value as an option.

Even though consumers bought into big fins marketing, it turns out they
really didn't want bigger fins. They really wanted reliable cars, as
stylish as possible, and hopefully even economical. There's reason to
think similar factors could change software development. In fact, I
think it *has* happened to *some* degree. A decade ago it wasn't
uncommon for Windows to need a reboot on a daily basis. Like Windows or
not, this is no longer the case. This isn't altruism on the part of MS.
Neither is it some deep desire of theirs to produce high quality
software. It's a response to the market, and to the competition (Linux,
BSD, Mac).

> [0] You don't change the way people think by changing what they say.  
> You change the way people think with HEADLESS CHARRED BODIES FLYING 
> THROUGH THE AIR!  BLOOD!  FLAMES!  --Alastair J. R. Young

True. That's in Phase II of the plan. We're still in Phase I.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http://metabug.org/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG Federation