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Why Vista Had To Be Rebuilt From Scratch
iliketrash writes "The Wall Street Journal has a long front-page article describing how Jim Allchin approached Bill Gates in July, 2004, with the news that then-Longhorn, now-Vista, was 'so complex that its writers would never be able to make it run properly.' Also, the article says, 'Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their own piece of computer code, then stitched it together into one sprawling program. Now, Mr. Allchin argued, the jig was up. Microsoft needed to start over.' And start over they did. The article is astonishing for its frank comments from the principles, including Allchin and Gates, as well as for its description of Microsoft's cowboy spaghetti code culture."
I think the poster meant "principals," since it's well known that there are no "principles" in Redmond.
"Microsoft's cowboy spaghetti code culture"
If its any thing like "Guns n Roses - Spaghetti Incident" then this should effectively be the last we hear of Microsoft.
It's really quite simple. "Generally bug-free" means that it "usually works" "most of the time."
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
So the amazing new innovation that's turned round the entire project is... automated testing? Wow, welcome to the brave new world of the mid 90s! Next up, Microsoft discovers the joy of source control... (incidentally, I need to find some solid info to justify not using SourceSafe - any pointers/links?)
Microsoft's new approach: Ultra-Extreme Programming.
Now they have taken the pair coding concept well beyond the next level. They put over 5000 developers in one auditorium, and they now write Vista together as a group. The shared display is up on the movie screen, and every coder has a wireless keyboard and mouse.
They're going to use thousands of minds working as one to produce a single, cohesive body of code. With so much manpower on the problem, development moves at a lightning pace: once a function has been typed in, it gets refactored dozens times within a matter of seconds.
After the Windows group was able to install a workable version of the system on their PCs four days before Christmas, Mr. Srivastava says the group celebrated by not working over the holidays.
They also like to celebrate by not having their fingers broken.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
If you're going to continue to post this troll, PLEASE replace >1% with 1%! I've seen this so many times, and it's always got that same typo.
Sounds like they just re-built a lot of the userland /desktop stuff
Automated test (whoooo!! that's so cutting edge)
And enforced some min. methodology
http://www.hawknest.com/
Spaghetti code? Look at how fast they are adding features, it is clear that they have a methodical approach to development.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Linux has adult supervision
Translation :
All the developers live in their parent's basements, and walk the code upstairs to show their mom.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
If there ever was to be a mascot for Vista it should be a pig with M$'s trademark 4 colored butterfly wings. Sort of interesting if you look at the penguin it has "wings" but cannot fly.
I hope George Broussard over at 3D Realms isn't reading this, now its going to be 3030 A.D. when we finally get Duke Nukem Forever!
Well, there's X, which is 20+ years of bloat, bugginess and insecurity.
I didn't actually. I love ducks. They're inherently funny. Just watching them makes me laugh, and once they start quacking, I can hardly contain myself.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Well, you can say it...but that doesn't mean that you're doing anything but lip-syncing the jargon .
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
But can you compile a working version?