Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bu.edu!orc!decwrl!nsc!taux01!amos
From: amos@taux01.nsc.com (Amos Shapir)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Speed Kills
Summary: No, it doesn't
Message-ID: <4040@taux01.nsc.com>
Date: 13 Jun 90 05:52:34 GMT
References: <447@garth.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: National Semiconductor (IC) Ltd, Israel, Home of the 32532
Lines: 67
X-Hdate: 20 Sivan 5750

In article <447@garth.UUCP> fouts@bozeman.ingr.com (Martin Fouts) writes:
>
>A) Some apparently random thoughts:
>
>  1) Processors are much faster than programmers:

The trouble is, the spec for humans has been frozen for a million years
or so (well, at least 5750 anyway...).  The vendor doesn't seem to be
interested in this line any more, so no upgrades are going to be available. :-)

>
>  2) User friendly systems aren't getting any friendlier:

Yes they are.  A big screen with windows and a mouse is an order of magnitude
friendlier than a VT100, which in itself is friendlier than a tty and paper
tape.

>
>  3) Programmers aren't doing new work, the are doing old work on new
>     machines:

>B) Observations:
>
>   1) Currrently most programming is porting old code to new machines.

Most wheels have been invented a long time ago; maintenance has been
the bulk of programming work for quite a while.  That also depends on
what you call "old work" - features are being added to old programs
which would not have been feasible when these programs were released.

>   2) CPU vendors don't help.

Simply not true - most major vendors keep compatibility with older
products.  It may take some time to upgrade an application from a 286
to a 486, but it could run with the old features from day one;
upgrading from a NS32016 to a 32532 (plug, plug :-)) takes as long
as a reboot.  Most high-level languages in use allow
portability; in any case, it shouldn't take as long as designing the
next generation of CPU's.

>
>   3) We don't know how to write reusable code.
>

Speak for yourself...

>
>C) Prediction:
>
>   As the rate of introduction and obscelences of new generations of
>   hardware increases the development of truely new software
>   functionality will decrease, dropping to zero.  [I claim that this
>   is an observation.  There hasn't been any "new" software since the
>   middle 70s.]

See above about "old software".  New hardware allows us to dust off old
algorithms that were unused because they take too much time and/or space
for the old machines.  New features constantly appear to support new
types of hardware that simply didn't exist a few years ago.  Not
everyone can invent a new algorithm for "sqrt" (if only that qualifies as
"truely new software"), but even that has been done lately.


-- 
	Amos Shapir		amos@taux01.nsc.com, amos@nsc.nsc.com
National Semiconductor (Israel) P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
Tel. +972 52 522408  TWX: 33691, fax: +972-52-558322 GEO: 34 48 E / 32 10 N