From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3) In-Reply-To: <45F0574F.50209@village.com> References: <20070307084327.Y60404@orthanc.ca> <3e1162e60703071628q3c5e16deg22859ed62937505b@mail.gmail.com> <45F0574F.50209@village.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <6A926F78-0B7C-4804-9A6C-592DDA51CE5B@telus.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Paul Lalonde Subject: Re: [9fans] interesting potential targets for plan 9 and/or inferno Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 10:44:40 -0800 To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Topicbox-Message-UUID: 1be0d80a-ead2-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The less cynical part of me says that windows got so huge through the usual process by which software gets huge: hiring. It's really easy to believe you need more manpower on your software project. That eventually leads to dividing your now-unmanageable team into smaller teams with interface committees sitting in between. As the process repeats itself the interfaces become increasingly harder to change and the effort to re-use or encapsulate similar pieces of work from across organizational barriers becomes more than just re-building something expedient yourself. Which leads to more hiring to help maintain the thing you built. Which leads to more interfaces. The number one job of a product/development manager should be to keep the team size small enough that this doesn't happen. The number one job of the architect is to find an architecture that can be implemented by a team small enough that the interface documents stay small. To bring this back onto topic, Plan 9's file server abstraction is exactly this: a mechanism to ensure that interfaces are consistent and that allows separation of development concerns without the strangle-hold of interface committees. Paul On 8-Mar-07, at 10:34 AM, Wes Kussmaul wrote: > David Leimbach wrote: >> So how did Windows get so huge? :-) > By > skillfully managing perceptions > building a worldwide network of "certified" people whose > livelihoods depend upon increasing complexity > ensuring the support of the hardware community by requiring regular > purchases of new computers > working behind the scenes to ensure that friends become decision > makers > FUD -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (Darwin) iD8DBQFF8FmYpJeHo/Fbu1wRAnOMAJ9YNoYk9QnNf01TYmkUpgSK8DUQrACgxXHB ZP9nESRDACkxQ3HRwtDIUrc= =GsIa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----