🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <347c9ec4.1179264@news.go-concepts.com>,
donaldw@NOSPAMsuper.zippo.com wrote:

>On Wed, 26 Nov 1997 11:32:14 GMT, peterb@gebesse.com.au (Peter
>Bowditch) sent into the ether:
>
[...]

>>Everything on the list of suggested topics has been a subject of books,
>>seminars and tearoom discussions for at least 25 years, and most even 
>>longer than that.

Which might simply be evidence of how effective these activities (books,
seminars, and tearoom discussions) are as catalysts for change.  

In another message, Peter said:

>Imagine a medical conference where people submitted papers about the possible
>use of X-rays as a diagnostic tool, or an aeronautical engineering conference
>where the major stream was the potential for jet engines to replace propellers
>on commercial aircraft.

Of course it's not hard to imagine such conferences a bit closer in time
to the invention of the technologies concerned.  To take the example of
the jet engine, there must have been plenty of discussion of its potential
around the end of the Second World War.  (Also, the 2WW was a major
catalyst in the application of jet engines, where both sides flew the
first semi-experimental jet fighters.)  No sooner were jet engines in use
in passenger liners than they led to the discovery of metal fatigue in
such applications, at the cost of passenger lives.  One could argue that
jet engines were adopted too quickly.  

In software we have the potential for innovations to be adopted extremely
quickly, but this potential is not often realised.  

Don Wallace commented:

>The constant newness of the tools in the software marketplace
>convinces everyone, even the smartest and supposedly most astute
>pundits, that everything is new, all past experience is invalidated,
>and that all assumptions have to be re-validated.  The "Alzheimer's
>view" is due to the high burnout rate of the field and the constant
>inflow of young'uns who think that they are smarter, better, and more
>clever than any of the cretins and idiots (like me or you) who worked
>with punch cards and mainframes 20-30 years ago.
>
>Foolish and tedious, isn't it?

Yes, and absolutely spot-on.  Yet, as Robert Glass points out (in CACM Vol
40, No. 9, September) roughly two-thirds of programmers still use Cobol. 
Is this going too far in the other direction?  Is the "Alzheimer's View"
balanced (or outnumbered) by a silent majority?  

...dav

-- 
http://www.zeta.org.au/~dvincent/   D A Vincent  speaking for myself only
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