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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (2073)	1/5/1998 3:40:00 AM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Doesn't one feel kinda silly talking to one's PC? A keyboard's a perfectly acceptable input device, no? Especially if one does a lot of editing and refining of thought.

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (2073)	1/5/1998 8:58:00 AM
From: Pierre-X	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Re: Software pushing hardware For reasons which I have detailed in depth elsewhere, I believe that software has always driven hardware demand. Hardware's no good if you can't use it for anything. The term "software bloat" carries negative connotations that disturb me. Software has simply grown in size in parallel with the hardware to support it, a natural outcome. "Bloat" implies an unnatural obesity arising from some kind of lack of developer discipline, which is simply not true. Any developer faces a variety of characteristics to optimize their software against: * Execution speed * Code size (this is what the "bloat" refers to) * Reliability/Stability * Development time * Portability * Extendability ... and some others as well. Code size is simply not a high priority, because storage and RAM technologies have advanced at least as fast as, and sometimes faster than the demands software have placed upon them. Would you choose to trade execution speed for smaller code? Volunteer to accept more bugs in exchange for smaller code? Accept longer development time? Sacrifice extendability? I think not. Thus, software will continue to grow in size as developers invent ways to better accomplish the other objectives by growing the code. With depressing regularity in the technology industry "Malthusians" crop up with dire predictions of stagnating progress and growth. Every time they have been proven fantastically wrong, and will continue to be wrong as long as human ingenuity exists. PX