Why Software Is So Bad


	Why Software Is So Bad
Djiezes
4-28-2007 3:47 AM
460 views
tags:
software, bad, design, mann, programming, computers, technology, bugs
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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/bb65e5e5-e9ee-4733-886b-e97ddce86d9f/514F314A-AF2C-434A-82D3-B6CC70603D33/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887" href="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887" style="font-size: 11px;">www.technologyreview.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><DIV class="HeadlineDiv"><SPAN class="headline"><LAYER name="4b18c941f648b88f3a8b8a58ee28ede2" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">Why Software Is So Bad</LAYER></SPAN></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><DIV class="DateDiv">7/23/<LAYER name="ca8398df0b0746ece87483088d6c153a" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)" __old__title="" title="">2002</LAYER></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><DIV class="AuthorDiv">By Charles C. Mann</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="95d12fef8237a63579ada01a3d1dc74a" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">the world around us is regulated by code</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="77e44108c571a69819542b45d5f38907" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">only the extreme usefulness of software lets us tolerate its huge deficiencies</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="f0db3ccee5c7fbb478fa43ca3aedf12e" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">Engineers constantly notice shortcomings in their designs and fix them little by little, a process Petroski wryly described as "form follows failure." As a result, products incrementally improve.</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="f0db3ccee5c7fbb478fa43ca3aedf12e" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">Software, alas, seems different.</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="ffd70982f2fb6322dc2fb71f941598f1" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">because of our growing dependence on the Net, Neumann says, "We're much worse off than we were five years ago. The risks are worse and the defenses are not as good.</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="79c4fa130aa0e1c998cbdb13af3ead1c" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">the techniques for writing software have failed to keep up with the explosive increase in its complexity.</LAYER></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12887"><LAYER name="9e79e3a74501290da9acd1984e66ef79" class="DIIGO-POWER" mode="2" owner="djiezes" diigo-title="djiezes's private highlight.(provided by Diigo)">coders-who in the early days tended to be trained as mathematicians or physicists-stayed late in their offices exhaustively checking their work. Writing software was much like writing scientific papers. Rigor, documentation and peer-review vetting were the custom.</LAYER></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/514F314A-AF2C-434A-82D3-B6CC70603D33/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>