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From: ekwok@mipos3.UUCP (Gibbons V. Ogden)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,comp.edu
Subject: Re: Computer science vs. Programming ag
Message-ID: <739@mipos3.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jun-87 13:38:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: mipos3.739
Posted: Wed Jun 10 13:38:02 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jun-87 05:46:28 EDT
References: <2794@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <-109700@watcgl.UUCP> <4146@prls.UUCP> <1320@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: ekwok@mipos3.UUCP (Gibbons V. Ogden)
Organization: United Americans Determined To Say NO!
Lines: 34
Xref: mnetor misc.jobs.misc:332 comp.edu:455

In article <1320@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu> shaffer@operations.dccs.upenn.edu.UUCP (Earl Shaffer) writes:
>In article <4146@prls.UUCP> weaver@prls.UUCP (Michael Gordon Weaver) writes:
>>If you are writing a program as a commercial product, the time of availability
>>of the program may be critical to the financial success of the program, 
>usually
>>because others will be trying to produce something to fill the same need.
>>
>>If in such a situation your program sells, you will be able to afford
>>to hire the additional manpower to do the extra work to make a good 
>>program out of a quick hack. Conversly, if it does not sell, you won't 
>>have to worry about maintenance. 
>
>This is just the line of reasoning that has made software a "kludge"
>rather than a regular business product.  AT&T does not "hack" a phone
>together so that they can beat the market.  AT&T would be broke
>disgraced & out of business.
>

A few years ago, there was a race to get to the market first in the CAE
area; looking back, most of the engineering workstation software of that
era might have been products under pressure to get out. The performance
on most stations were dismal (they blame it on the hardware) and the 
"integrated solution" they offered were ususally mish-meshes of whatnots
of the past eras they happen to find from different sources. (You can
disagree, of course; that's my personal view). Amazing enough, I didn't
find among the Daisies, Mentors and Valids a clear winner and any dominance
in the market because of early presence. To the users I have met, reliability
and "kludginess" characterize the day. I wonder if software methodology has
anything to do with this.

-- 


Where is Rose Bird, Jerry Brown and Don Maclean? Are they on the net?