[comp.software-eng] Large executables: Where's the space going?

davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (06/07/90)

   Where? I don't care.
   Why?  Ah, now that's more to the point.

   It could be going many interesting places (to we denizens of comp.arch)
like compiler misoptimization or the "semantic gap" of the vCISC era, but
it's probably going somewhere dull and boring: to the learning curve.

   It sems like any time a new dimension is added to the computer
programming problem we see a number of stereotyped results
	1) the programs get large and slow
	2) managmenty complains bitterly
	3) some strange old techniques resurface, many
		of which solve the wrong problem
	4) some organization/vendor releases a non-large, non-slow
		program
	5) several years later most organizations are writing
		small fast versions.

    Dick McMurray said it best:
	First we get it right.
	Then we get it fast.
	Then we get it small.

--dave (history, how dull) c-b
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA, ...!yunexus!davecb or
72 Abitibi Ave.,      | {toronto area...}lethe!dave 
Willowdale, Ontario,  | "And the next 8 man-months came up like
CANADA. 416-223-8968  |   thunder across the bay" --david kipling