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From: gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.cse
Subject: Re: portable code
Message-ID: <1149@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Mar-86 14:36:20 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1149
Posted: Sun Mar  2 14:36:20 1986
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I am not going to include any of Larua's text, because I think she
made some very good points.  There is really no excset for not doing
the best job you can.  I think the following is an explanation of why
"the best job possible" is not always done in the software industry.

Laura states that good civil engineers build bridges that last > 10
years, good architects build houses that don't fall, etc.  There is a
major difference between those professions and the software industry.
Those professions have been around for centuries!  The techniques
involved in building robust structures are well understood, and have
been for many years.  The software industry is just a baby compared to
those professions.  Techniques for building robust systems are not
fully understood yet by researchers, let alone implementors.  In
general, the software industry has not matured yet to the point where
those techniques of robustness are an integral part of the industry.
It is still largely in an experimental stage, where most of the
concern is "can we do it?" and "after we've proved we can, let's do it
right" rather than "by golly, we're going to do it, and do it right
the first time".

If the software industry survives, and software becomes an integral
part of everyone's lives, I believe that certain standards of
robustness (of which portable code is just one) will be required.  It
will be necessary, because society will not tolerate software which
does not work as well as doing it by hand.  The market will demand
this robustness.  It is good that people like Laura are out there
raising our consciousness now, so the next generation of software
produced will be generally more robust.
-- 
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{decvax!genrad, allegra, gatech, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds
gds@eddie.mit.edu