From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:09:45 -0500 From: "Eric Van Hensbergen" To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@9fans.net> In-Reply-To: <13426df10806021255y4122f46h34a88ebb8480f29e@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <483D8DBE.4090005@cableone.net> <200805282337.11349.yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr> <20080601151213.GA10795@nibiru.local> <5d375e920806021225w3a98fec0l87ae4499838ae91b@mail.gmail.com> <13426df10806021255y4122f46h34a88ebb8480f29e@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: [9fans] crosstool fails on gentoo Topicbox-Message-UUID: b222fb58-ead3-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 2:55 PM, ron minnich wrote: > > I keep reviewing papers that want to simplify things by ... adding > another layer of software! > That's a really great observation. I see it all the time as well, for some reason simplification has come to mean add new layers of abstraction. But it is a false simplification, it may simplify the API, but the overall system complexity increases (and usually lead to a decrease in system efficiency). All productivity factors become harder (development may be easier, but debugging, performance debugging, and management typically become more difficult). Someone really needs to remind folks that "system simplification" involves a reduction in the number of layers, not an increase in them. -eric