Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: OOP and software reuse Message-ID: <5351@stpstn.UUCP> Date: 11 Jul 90 14:32:57 GMT References: <39400113@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <112789@linus.mitre.org> Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox) Organization: Stepstone Lines: 36 In article jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) writes: >In article <112789@linus.mitre.org> mitchell@community-chest.uucp (George Mitchell) writes: > >It's easy to say make it right, provide the test cases, documentation >and everything I need to use it as is, but the reality is that none of >us is omniscient enough to foresee how our code is going to be used, >especially in the ever-changing world of computers and their expanding >domains. So, for the foreseeable future I believe our best hope is in >providing intelligent tools for assisting us in adapting code and >associated artifacts including, for example, documentation and test >cases, to new uses. You've put your finger squarely on the difficulty of cleaning up our software act. But, like Fred Brooks in "No Silver Bullet", you are viewing our prison walls, the software crisis, as an immovable obstacle rather than an infinite force, an irresistable incentive to escape. So long as we avoid coming to terms with incentives for providing test cases, documentation, and "everything I need to use it as is", we'll be stuck in the software crisis, no matter how intelligent we make our code adaptation tools. Because code adapation tools don't come to terms with the real problem, bringing division of labor to bear on software. The solution, the "silver bullet" is so simple to state, but so difficult to apply. To wit, it is to change the *culture*, not the *technology*, for example by creating a marketplace where the *consumers* are empowered to reimburse those who do things right, rather than as today, for doing things *wrong*. An example of the wrong way is the cost+fixed fee system. An example of the right way is the U.S. Ordnance Bureau + Congress's determination to have guns with interchangeable parts, *nomatter the initial cost*, and nomatter the gunsmith's objections. -- Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875 The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482