College of Alameda

College of Alameda

Copyright © 2006 Patrick McDermott

pmcdermott@peralta.edu


Anders Hejlsberg:
[“Father” of C#]: I guess I’m
becoming less and less of a believer in revolutionary
approaches to language design. It really is amazing how
much the capabilities of computing have evolved, yet
we’re basically still using the same kinds of
programming languages. It gives me hope that we can
go even further with an evolutionary approach where
we don’t just invalidate all the work that went before.


Robert Glass
:
Hype
, and the notion of
one
-
size
-
fits
-
all

undermine out ability to put together project
-
focused, strong, sensible solutions. We continue to seek
the Holy Grail while knowledgeable people tell us over
and over again that we are not going to find it.

More Moore?

•
Array
of 100 items versus
100,000,000

–
No person on earth owned such a computer

–
Both arrays took me about as long to program

•
If Moore’s Law is correct

–
2011
is
47,453,133
times
1960 (Cobol released)

–
Autos don’t get 1,000,000,000,000 mpg

–
But if
there was a Microsoft
® Auto

•
Freeze every 1,000 miles or so,
needs
to be restarted

•
Every
10,000
miles or so
, blows
up killing all
aboard

If


builders built buildings the way programmers write
programs, then the first woodpecker that came along
would destroy civilization.

Software

•
If Software was like Hardware

–
No one would need to be “a programmer”

•
“
The

(part
-
time) programmer for the world”

–
New programmer == 1 billion old programmers!

•
We can do things we couldn’t

–
But not
50 billion
times as good

–
All advances essentially due to Hardware

•
Linux is More of the Same

Essence & Accident

•
Fred Brooks’ “No Silver Bullet”
is still
true

•
Programming is less than half the problem

•
Eliminate
Programming Phase
entirely

–
You
wouldn’t even double productivity

•
not to
mention
an order
-
of
-
magnitude improvement


“
Not only are there no silver bullets in view, the very
nature of software makes it unlikely there will be any
—
no
inventions that will do for software productivity, reliability,
and simplicity what electronics, transistors, and large
-
scale
integration did for computer hardware.
”


Humans

•
After 100,000 years

–
Need same Nutrients

–
Need same Rest

–
Have same Emotions

•
Progress?

–
War

–
Crime

–
Prejudice

–
Stupidity

–
Cruelty

BUT
Optimism

•
More Secure

•
More Interesting

•
Longer
Lives

•
We Might be the last
generation that thinks
100 is Old.

Heinrich
Hoerle

Men
-
Machines

1930

Digital Harmony

Penzias
, Arno,
Digital Harmony: Business, Technology & Life After Paperwork
, New York:
HarperBusiness (0
-
88730
-
785
-
X), 1996 (1995).


M
achines

of

Loving Grace

I like to think (and

the sooner the better!)

of a cybernetic meadow

where mammals and computers

live together in mutually

programming harmony

like pure water

touching clear sky


I like to think

(right now, please!)

of a cybernetic forest

filled with pines and electronics

where deer stroll peacefully

past computers

as if they were flowers

with spinning blossoms

M
achines

of

Loving Grace

I like to think

(it has to be!)

of a cybernetic ecology

where we are free of our labors

and joined back to nature,

returned to our mammal

brothers and sisters

and all watched over

by machines of loving grace

Richard
Brautigan
, 1967