[comp.misc] It *can* be done

peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (05/06/91)

In article <NELSON.91May5214234@sun.clarkson.edu> nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) writes:
> The 300-plus pieces arrived for two weeks before the conference.  The
> day before it began, all the pieces were laid out in place.  Most of
> the 600 joints fit perfectly the first time.  Pretty mind-boggling,
> isn't it?

I can download from the net a peice of software with thousands of library
calls, system calls, references to files, etc. And for most software 90% of
these calls fit the first time... even when I'm using widely disparate
operating systems (no, not just variants of UNIX). Pretty mind-boggling,
isn't it? And these weren't done by masters, either.

I think programmers put themselves down too much, simply because they're
working on the most complex structures built by man to date. As the cookie
program says: if builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs,
you could buy a nice colonial split level for 29c at K-mart.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  `-_-'  peter@ferranti.com
+1 713 274 5180.  'U`  "Have you hugged your wolf today?"

blenko-tom@cs.yale.edu (Tom Blenko) (05/08/91)

In article <NELSON.91May5214234@sun.clarkson.edu> nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) writes:
|In article <489@heaven.woodside.ca.us> glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes:
|
|   Imagine two carpenters building a door.  One builds the frame, the other
|   builds the door.  Neither one is on-site, and neither has met the other...
|
|I'm afraid that you're revealing your ignorance here, Glenn (don't
|worry, I've done it *lots* of times myself).  Not only *can* it be
|done, it *has* been done...
|The 300-plus pieces arrived for two weeks before the conference.  The
|day before it began, all the pieces were laid out in place.  Most of
|the 600 joints fit perfectly the first time...

Most isn't nearly good enough.

	Tom