by Asim Jalis
Builder AU has an interview of Damian Conway (which is also
posted on Slashdot). Here are some interesting comments that
Damian made about the nature of software development:
It seems that every few years a new development technique is
hailed as the start of the Programming Renaissance, the Golden
Age of Scientific Software Development. And none ever is. [...]
Of course, the problem is not in these development tools. It's
in us. All of these approaches are based on a false premise,
the same desperate illusion that every programmer clings to:
that the universe of problems to be solved is homogeneous, and
that our task as programmers is predictable enough for one
approach, one methodology, one language, one standard library
to fit all problems.
But the real world isn't like that -- no matter how much our
politicians and our religious leaders and our advertising
executives would like us to believe it. Our world is complex,
and inconsistent, and piecemeal. And it's the same in the
virtual worlds in which programmers work.
The second half of that quote is: "The programmer is fighting
against the two most destructive forces in the universe:
entropy and human stupidity. They're not things you can always
overcome with a 'methodology' or on a schedule."
Here is a link to the interview:
http://www.builderau.com.au/program/0,39024614,39160082,00.htm
