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From: eugene@pioneer.arpa (Eugene Miya N.)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: brash micros versus the Big Iron: not yet (little humor)
Message-ID: <2670@ames.arpa>
Date: Fri, 4-Sep-87 13:46:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.2670
Posted: Fri Sep  4 13:46:14 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 18:11:49 EDT
References: <622@winchester.UUCP> <12953@amdahl.amdahl.com> <630@winchester.UUCP> <8524@utzoo.UUCP> <1297@geac.UUCP> <1866@sol.ARPA>
Sender: usenet@ames.arpa
Reply-To: eugene@pioneer.UUCP (Eugene Miya N.)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 29

I really have to get back to work, but Lawrence Crowl writes:
>In article <1297@geac.UUCP> john@geac.UUCP (John Henshaw) writes:
>>..., software is more "malleable" than hardware and therefore in many ways,
>>far easier to work with than hardware.
>> . . . but I believe that the cost of
>>repairing those software mistakes is *usually* lower than that of hardware.
>
>Yes.  A thousand chip board is far less mallable than a thousand line program.

This is sort of like those sci-fi movies with insects slowly taking over
the world.  If hardware is so `hard,' how come there are all these COBOL
and FORTRAN (and LISP, and soon Pascal and C) dusty decks, I mean, programs
lying around?  ;-)  No, I think they should switch names.  The advantage of
the physical is that they are improved thru advances in the technology.
I wonder about the same for virtual-ware.  Belady (then with IBM) did a
study about the point of diminishing returns on bugs.  Consider that the program
that does my pay check is lots older than the machine it probably runs on.
Sounds like a B-52.  Seems a lot "harder" to me.  Think about it.

	The Program that would not die! (Sci-fi movie ;-)

From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:

--eugene miya
  NASA Ames Research Center
  eugene@ames-aurora.ARPA
  "You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
  "Send mail, avoid follow-ups.  If enough, I'll summarize."
  {hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix,menlo70}!ames!aurora!eugene