October 22, 2007 — books, software
Quoting A Conversation with Alan Kay:
If you look at software today, through the lens of the history of engineering, it’s certainly engineering of a sort—but it’s the kind of engineering that people without the concept of the arch did. Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
August 06, 2007 — software
In November of 1990, IEEE Software published an article by Brad Cox titled “Planning the Software Industrial Revolution.” Early this year, I rediscovered it and carried a copy around with me for weeks. As I read and reread it, my copy grew tattered and thoroughly marked up. It’s an essay worth revisiting.
The first industrial revolution was envisioned long before it took place. Its influence on gunsmithing was foreseen by Thomas Jefferson in 1785, but it took fifty years for armory practice to change from cut-to-fit production to the assembly of guns from standardized parts.
The change was driven by consumers and not producers. The experts of the day kept to their ways until the world superceded them.
Is that happening in software today?
February 01, 2007 — ruby, software
Peter Cooper recently asked: ‘How has Ruby blown or stretched your mind?’
Just for fun, here’s my answer. It’s not a feature of the language that is so important. It’s the attitude. Ruby’s creator Yukihiro Matsumoto expressed it in this year 2000 interview. My favorite excerpts are below.