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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,c9f2b97a84c48976 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-01 07:10:41 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news1.optus.net.au!optus!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!newsfeeds.bigpond.com!not-for-mail From: robin Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml,comp.lang.java.advocacy Subject: Re: Market pressures for more reliable software Message-ID: Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 13:55:49 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 144.134.49.43 X-Trace: newsfeeds.bigpond.com 993995749 144.134.49.43 (Sun, 01 Jul 2001 23:55:49 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 23:55:49 EST Organization: Telstra BigPond Internet Services (http://www.bigpond.com) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:9296 comp.lang.java.programmer:79881 comp.lang.pl1:1179 comp.lang.vrml:3964 comp.lang.java.advocacy:22435 Date: 2001-07-01T13:55:49+00:00 List-Id: Lao Xiao Hai writes: > > > "Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz" wrote: > > > ENIAC was before my time, but I'd agree that development was probably > > centralized in those days. What is in dispute is whether development was > > centralized in the years or decades immediately preceding the PC. But > > distributed development occurred even when the computer was centralized, even > > before the 7090. > > Perhaps. But, for most organizations, emphasis on the word most, computing > resources within an organization was under the centralized managment of > one central authority. Moreover, most of the computing was located in one > place. It is true that some very large corporations had computers distributed > across their divisions, but that was a luxury not affordable by most of industry. > > This centralization, during the 70's and through the mid-80's even extended to > collections of companies. Ever hear of a service bureau. In service bureaus > we centralized the computing for vertical markets as well as for such things > as payroll, general accounting, and other business applications. There was > very little distributed development before the advent of, first the minicomputer, > and later the microcomputer. > > Networks were still a mystery for most people. Programmers were busy > grinding out programs in COBOL. Compilers needed large memory spaces > and operating systems and these were hosted on million dollar plus machines, > making it too expensive to distribute them all over the place. Neither large nor expensive. One machine we had cost (then) $150,000 and had 402 words of main memory and 32K bytes of rotating storage. The smaller IBM 360 machines had 16K bytes to 32K bytes. > The exceptions > were the Fords, Chryslers, and other industrial giants with money to burn. > > I spent a lot of years consulting to, developing software for, and cleaning up > after these centralized computing facilities. > > Things are a lot more distributed now. Frankly, as I look at the quality of some > of the software, I am not sure that can be classified as progress. > > Richard Riehle