[TUHS] Re: Proper use of TUHS (was Re: Typesetter C compiler)

[steve jenkin <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>]

> On 4 Feb 2023, at 04:45, Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org> wrote:
> 
> We still seem to be in the “Cambrian explosion” phase
> where every new complex system is a new species.

You just perfectly described the computing world  before 1965 & IBM’s 360.
A range with 10x - 20x (? recall failure) of compatible models.

This was repeated with microprocessors
 - at each ‘process step’, one clock frequency option for many years.

Can’t recall who invented the range of CPU options we now have:

	server, desktop, laptop, tablet and ‘embedded’

Might’ve been two variants of 486, can’t recall.

There was a tower of babel with Networking for decades,
first the physical layer,
then the packet layer, 
then network / protocol layer.

We ended up with cat-5/6 twisted pair as the most common
physical layer (with RJ-45’),
async packets framed with Ethernet,
running IP protocols over the network layer.

“Internetwork” is a give away in the name “I.P.”.

This, despite IBM & Microsoft’s  (& others) considerable efforts otherwise.

Mature markets require “Standard” parts / services,
so consumers can mix-n-match as they wish.

Standards facilitate “substitutes” & competition necessary
to generate low-margin, high-volume commodity markets.

By definition, commodity markets trade “fungible goods”
destined for consumers. So many of these, hard to list.

Standards - where manufacturers agree on common designs -
only appear when manufacturers agree they’ve a common
interest in building “volume”, not locking customers in.

This happened very early with bipolar TTL logic.

Smart phones are mostly Linux / Android,
with Apple still able to sell non-commodity designs
at premium prices.

Remember Microsoft’s foray, via Nokia, into Mobiles?
“Pocket PC” and “Windows Mobile” / Windows Phone:

	Crashed and burned.

Even Nokia, then largest phone seller,
with the proven Symbian O/S,
 failed against Android.

--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin