From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: ** X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,FREEMAIL_FROM, FROM_LOCAL_NOVOWEL,HK_RANDOM_FROM,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10ad19,a8d0156246a83355 X-Google-Attributes: gid10ad19,public X-Google-Thread: 11390f,a8d0156246a83355 X-Google-Attributes: gid11390f,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,a8d0156246a83355 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 110df7,a8d0156246a83355 X-Google-Attributes: gid110df7,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,a8d0156246a83355 X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public From: Harlan Grove Subject: Re: Article: The shift away from user directed projects Date: 2000/03/29 Message-ID: <0a0bc822.aa80eda8@usw-ex0109-068.remarq.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 604023096 References: <0hHhOB6JC0shHWoiFENqSKhFoJol@4ax.com> X-Originating-Host: 206.252.64.230 X-Complaints-To: wrenabuse@remarq.com X-Trace: WReNphoon2 954363710 10.0.2.68 (Wed, 29 Mar 2000 13:01:50 PST) Organization: http://www.remarq.com: The World's Usenet/Discussions Start Here NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 13:01:50 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.asm,comp.lang.basic X-Wren-Trace: eIGkjI2U05nSyYeFisaSnrOTnojKhs6axN/e1MbHzZPA0ZXO3ZLE Date: 2000-03-29T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: You're spamming a lot of newsgroups, but I suppose that's unavoidable given you want a wide range of developer responses. There's an unavoidable tension between horizontal (generic, IT-directed development) and vertical (industry- specific/user-directed development) knowledge and technology. Accounting systems are a good example. Manufacturers, distributors, industrial and consumer service providers, banks, insurance and other financial service providers have significantly different needs when it comes to accounting systems. Manufacturers and distributors have much greater concern managing depreciation and inventories than the other types of business. Banks, insurance companies and to a lesser extent other finanical service providers have to have systems that support risk-based capital analysis, a concept pretty much foreign to the other types of business. It's not possible to design a one-size-fits-all accounting solution, at least not for large corporations. Once you have to design specific solutions for certain industrial sectors this nirvana of IT-directed, nonspecific development dies off. It may work reasonably well for the (horizontal) software foundation - examples: ODBC, OOP, RDBMSs, ftp and electronic data transmission in general, IEEE floating point math, image formats like GIF, TIFF and JPEG, etc. It doesn't work for satisfying (vertical) business needs like accounting, decision analysis and support, EIS, budgetting and forecasting. As for developers on their own anticipating business and private user needs, there are a lot of failed products that have come out over the last 15 years - Compaq's integrated phone and PC, integrated productivity applications, almost all 'paperless office' schemes. And arguably the most widely used programming language, perl, has been designed by its users (I'm not saying this was a good thing, but it was apparently a popular thing). The best model for software development is evolutionary change, and that's best served by as many design and development channels as possible. Both user-directed and ivory tower projects contribute to software progress. Maybe it's all boils down to answering the question: how much more could have been achieved in the last 15 years if software development had remained in IT departments and the entire shareware and open source phenomena hadn't occurred? I think my response would differ from yours. * Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful