Nick writes:
< What role does occam's razor play in software development? Any? Or did it
used to, and now it doesn't any more. >
Imagine telling a contractor that you wanted a room for watching movies.
Instead of looking at the rooms you have, running wires to speakers, and adding
blinds on the windows, insulating the walls, etc. she said "Argh, this whole
house is crap, I'm going to build you a shed in the backyard for your movies."
This is how a lot of projects age, and describes the instincts of many
software developers. Mega-line codes exist because developers don't take time
to understand the context of their work. They find some minimal interface to
the host code (that they *think* is safe) and then just hacking. As projects
get bigger it becomes harder to find any unifying principles to guide further
construction. Sometimes this is not a catastrophe, but other times
assumptions break down and the reliability of the software suffers. Imagine
putting a two car garage on top of a flat-roof house supported only by 2x4s.
Marcus
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