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Path: utzoo!yetti!geac!john
From: john@geac.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Software Technology is NOT Primitive
Message-ID: <1695@geac.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Oct-87 14:00:26 EST
Article-I.D.: geac.1695
Posted: Mon Oct 26 14:00:26 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Oct-87 07:01:38 EST
References: <3405@ece-csc.UUCP> <638@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <3471@sol.ARPA>
Organization: GEAC Computers, Toronto, CANADA
Lines: 36
Summary: interesting reference

In article <3471@sol.ARPA>, crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl) writes:
> Software technology is not in the primitive state that people so constantly
> moan about.  First, software has a much more difficult task than hardware.  We
> have more expectations from software than hardware, so the perceived state of
> the technology is less than the actual state.  
> [other stuff deleted]
>   Lawrence Crowl

There is a very interesting article, related to this issue, well worth
reading, that I would like to recommend:

	"Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective"
	 (by) Edsger W. Dijkstra
	 (publ) Springer-Verlag ISBN 0-387-90652 or 3-540-90652-5

The article from the book is entitled:

		"Why is Software so Expensive?":
		An Explanation to the Hardware Designer.

The book is interesting, this article especially so.


I can't agree that "software has a much more difficult task than hardware"
or visa versa - the whole thing appears to be on a continuous scale, and
often things are done in hardware, that were once done in software. (An
example of this is floating point routines). As well, the opposite is
true. (Include here a long CISC/RISC debate.) One might have asked: "In
what way do market expectations determine the decision as to where to
put hardware/software development effort?"

-john-
-- 
John Henshaw,			(mnetor, yetti, utgpu !geac!john)
Geac Computers Ltd.		"...and bring along a major credit card
Markham, Ontario, Canada, eh?		 and a piece of ID..."