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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Free Software Foundation (was: Re: Mach, the new standard?)
Message-ID: <8579@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Sep-87 21:39:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8579
Posted: Mon Sep 14 21:39:06 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Sep-87 21:39:06 EDT
References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 23

> Leave it to someone who's been using small, out-dated equipment for
> years now to be so publicly unkind.

Actually, I'm about to start using much larger and more modern equipment.
This does not diminish my distaste for software that seems to be written
on the assumption that 4MB memory boards cost a nickel apiece.

To pick a non-GNU example, graphing the size of the ls(1) command versus
time is an interesting exercise, not to be recommended if you are susceptible
to nausea and vomiting.  To pick an example that is ready at hand, the Sun
3.2 ls(1) is four times the size of the V7 ls(1).  It's not four times as
good; the improvement in functionality might charitably be put at 25%.

This sort of gratuitous bloat is endemic in post-PDP11 software.  While I
do not claim that 16-bit address spaces are anything but a pain -- I have
much more experience with this than most of my readers! -- they do tend
to teach respect for resource consumption.  I will not be sorry to leave
the PDP11 behind, but it won't be trivial to make our glorious new 32-bit
machine support as many users -- doing the same things! -- as our lousy
little 11/44, despite much more memory and a much faster CPU.
-- 
"There's a lot more to do in space   |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
than sending people to Mars." --Bova | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry