4 Dec
2006
4 Dec
'06
7:41 p.m.
On 4 Dec 2006 at 20:08, Jerome Fine wrote:
So software can also fail in ways that are similar to
hardware
problems - EXCEPT that software will NEVER develop an entirely
new bug called a failure due to age problems whereas hardware
will always eventually reach this stage if used long enough.
If this latter characteristic is what you refer to as the prime
difference between hardware and software, then I agree 100%!!!
But that doesn't imply that time's not an enemy of software!
Obsolescence is the biggest enemy--try making a single MS-DOS 2,1 C:
partition on that new 250GB drive.
In the 70's and early 80's, it wasn't unsual to find programs that
don't deal with dates after 1999. A program may have worked well for
more than 20 years suddenly becomes useless when the century changes.
Old programs using program loops to introduce a small delay. On an
XT, the following loop takes more than a second to execute:
MOV CX, 0FFFFh
Here:
LOOP Here
Cheers,
Chuck