::scr open sores

[Andy Wardley]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 08:53:01AM -0600, Chris Devers wrote:
> > I'd get a Mac but they crash even more, they only have 1 fricking mouse
> 
> *troll gong!*
> 
> There's a nice argument that one button is all a mouse should have 

And another which says you can plug any 2-button USB mouse into your Mac
as a replacement.  :-)

> Just like ...most big, complex software projects? Rare is the application
> that was fleshed out in detail right from the outset...

Not functional, not delivered on time and not delivered within budget is
the application that was fleshed out in detail from the outset...

:-)

That's Old Skool coding we're talking about.  When some supposedly smart
guys sit in an ivory tower and pretend they know everything about a system,
understand each of the problems endemic in it and can predict every useful
feature that the users might want.  Then they write it all down (ever play
chinese whispers?) and pass it onto the next guys who aren't supposed to 
know anything or engage their brains but just translate one language into 
another.

Old Skool is dead.  Long live New Skool!

That's where the smart guys realise that the best systems are not pre-planned
but grown.  Design happens at every stage of construction, not just the 
beginning.

Unfortunately, organic software like Perl and Apache often grows in 
directions we never anticipate and grows faster than our ability to prune
it.  There are often too many designers, most of whom have no formal 
experience in language design and get laughed at by arrogant fuckwits 
because they're not afraid to say that they don't understand what 
continuations are :-).   But that's the whole point - it grows where it 
needs to grow (and sometimes where it doesn't) and ends up as a far more 
useful product as a result.  

Ruby is a much cleaner, more consistent, elegant, cohesive and internally
well structured language than Perl.  But Perl is generally more useful
(e.g. CPAN).  VHS beat Betamax because the tapes were cheaper and VHS 
rental shops could afford to spring up overnight.  Worse is sometimes 
better for all sorts of funny reasons.


A