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We Really Don't Know Jack About Maintenance
davecb writes "The ACM has been kind enough to print Paul Stachour's and my 'jack' article about Software Maintenance. Paul first pointed out back in 1984 that we and our managers were being foolish — when we were still running Unix V7 — and if anything it's been getting worse. Turns out maintenance has been a 'solved problem in computer science' since at least then, and we're just beginning to rediscover it."
But I really love maintenance. Sure, the job comes with tremendous amounts of stress but it really entertaining. In CCNA, there's nothing better than subnetting a large network :)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
FreeBSD 1 and FreeBSD 2 had slightly different semantics for some system calls, but FreeBSD 2 changed the system call numbers, so it was possible to modify the FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 kernel to run the binary Netscape for FreeBSD 2.x by implementing the new API for one call in the old kernel. Alas, I can't find the patch now, which is embarrassing because I was the one hosting it... about 15 years ago.
Could a six sigma program help here? A systematic and structured approach to problem solving is needed. Whenever someone fixes a bug that creates a new bug, then it's a waste of everyone time and effort.
Tell me about it... There's so much feeping creaturism going on in my project that I have to make a SAN check to go to work every morning (if I fail, I go).
Doesn't modular programming solve this problem?
Theory, I'd like to introduce you to practice. You two are very different, you should have lots of things to talk about.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
You mean you don't remember Flash for ENIAC?