On Dec 6, 2008, at 6:27 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:
To some extent, the popularity of NFS (is there any NAS box
that talks AFS?) and Linux is one big testament to the
power of "good enough" or "worse is better".
i really hate this meme. it doesn't mean anything.
It depends on the point of view, I guess. To me its value
is about juxtaposing two approaches to the design.
Being a non-native English speaker the wording and
metaphors don't bother me that much. Three essays
helped me understand why software produced by
different "schools of thought" is so drastically different:
* Worse is better:
http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html
* On the fact that Atlantic Ocean has two sides:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD611.html
* On the fact that most software is written on one side of the
Atlantic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ROTJKkhuI
imho, the reasons nfs is popular are mostly political
Oh, come on! ;-) You sound like Bjarne now, complaining
that James Gosling, hijacked OOP with tons of corporate
support (which is somewhat true) and that people don't
want to use C++ because Sun brainwashed them, not
because it is the most convoluted language after ALGOL 68.
and logistical rather than technical. sun pushed nfs,
That is true. But without NetAPP and others, that wouldn't be
possible.
so saying calling nfs an example of "worse is better" implies
that using nfs is a technical decision.
You seem to be interpreting worse-is-better quite differently
from how I interpret it. To me it is all about reasoning about survival
skills. And yes, I tend to agree with its main premise, that mediocracy
usually has better survival skills. Nothing to do with technical
aspects.
Thanks,
Roman.
