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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,899fc98b2883af4a X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-16 08:00:17 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!lon1-news.nildram.net!195.149.20.147.MISMATCH!mercury.nildram.co.uk!not-for-mail Message-ID: Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 15:59:54 +0100 From: Tom Welsh Reply-To: Tom Welsh Sender: Tom Welsh Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Quality systems (Was: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died)) References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305091549.48b9c5d9@posting.google.com> <7507f79d.0305121629.5b8b7369@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305130643.526f61c2@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305140436.534f7151@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305160440.7846d18c@posting.google.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike Integrated Version 5.01 U NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.208.100.157 X-Trace: 1053097217 mercury.nildram.net 45176 213.208.100.157 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63920 comp.object:63545 comp.lang.ada:37391 comp.software-eng:19233 Date: 2003-05-16T15:59:54+01:00 List-Id: In article <9fa75d42.0305160440.7846d18c@posting.google.com>, soft-eng writes > >Btw, the architect of Win-32 is the same individual >who architected VAX-VMS. (Bill Gates doesn't sit down >and design Windows himself, he hires good people.) >That might be one of the reasons why Win-32 has always >been relatively stable, and with almost a decade of >use behind it, has achieved very decent quality levels. That turns out not to be the case. 1. Dave Cutler didn't architect VAX/VMS all by himself. He was a member of a team, and not necessarily the dominant member (except perhaps in terms of personality). 2. Cutler didn't design Win32 either. He joined Microsoft in 1988 to write a new operating system, which turned out to be Windows NT. Cutler's team wrote the operating system kernel and services. Win32 was a load that NT had to carry, not a source of strength. 3. According to G Pascal Zachary's book "Showstopper!", "...Cutler didn't disguise his scorn for Microsoft and its products. He thought the company's code was poorly written, and that DOS, its crown jewel, was a 'toy'". Actually, it was the requirement to support the Windows graphics subsystem that came closest to wrecking the whole NT project. Zachary again: "Cutler saw the worst in graphics. 'He worried about that group all the time,' an intimate said. 'He saw them as loose cannons'". It is true that Cutler's work laid the foundation for a series of "relatively stable" Microsoft operating systems. But there was (and still is) a fundamental tension between the things that make VMS and Windows NT stable, and the user interface glitz that have made Windows the popular success it is. -- Tom Welsh