strangest systems I've sent email from

[Fred Cisin]

> I don't know if that was a specific market ploy based on Moore's Law,

an actually quite smart move, . . .

> or just the generally accepted practice of getting an initial version
> with the API working any which way, then refactoring to improve
> performance/correctness in later versions.

For decades, I used to rant that the biggest problem with Microsoft 
software was that they treated their programmers "too well".

That if Microsoft programmer had space problems, they would immediately 
replace his machine with one with more RAM and bigger drive, and he 
wouldn't learn to be memory or disk space efficient.

That if his programs were too slow, that they would immediately replace 
his machine with a faster one, and he would never learn to write fast or 
efficient code.

If there was ever a hardware problem, they would immediately replace the 
machine.  Accordingly, Microsoft programmers NEVER actually experienced 
hardware issues, and had to IMAGINE what disk errors, etc. would be like, 
resulting in software that couldn't properly handle them when they 
happened.  For exaample, when SMARTDRV was causing MANY problems with 
write-caching (TOTAL failure and data loss if even a minor disk error 
occurs), Microsoft was in denial, and couldn't understand that their 
software needed to be able to recover, or at least sanely handle the 
situation when an error occurred.
They did not CARE ("well, that's a hardware problem, not out problem.") 
that a single bad sector (unfound by SPINRITE) in the disk space occupied 
by the WINGBATS font, totally prevented installation of Windoze 3.10.
[cf. "disk compression problems" due to SMARTDRV, and their need to 
replace DOS6.00 with 6.20]


I used to rant that if Microsoft were to "trade machines with us", and 
give their programmers current or old, rather than newest, machines, that 
their programmers might finally learn how to write robust compact fast 
software.


OK, so development should be targeted for next generation hardware.
BUT, testing should be done with what is actually out in the real world.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com