Re: The illusion of simplicity and low cost in data design and computing

On Thu, 11 Aug 2022 23:03:50 +0100
Stephen D Green <[email protected]> wrote:

> With the Chinese Taiwan crisis it may all be academic and chips might
> be scarcer than energy for the foreseeable future anyway. Now where
> did I put my pen and paper?

I'm staying calm:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPOviqxFllA

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pBjopDymts

> ----
> Stephen D Green
> 
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2022 at 21:23, Roger L Costello <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Yesterday Michael Kay wrote:
> >
> > A common phenomenon in the history of computing: simplicity and low cost
> > wins over technical sophistication. Something which is now causing the
> > industry huge costs because the popular operating systems are so insecure.
> >
> > In his book, "The Art of Unix Programming" Eric Raymond writes:
> >
> > Many operating systems touted as more "modern" or "user friendly" than Unix
> > achieve their surface glossiness by locking users and developers into one
> > interface policy, and offer an application-programming interface (API) that
> > for all its elaborateness is rather narrow and rigid. On such systems,
> > tasks the designers have anticipated are very easy--but tasks they have not
> > anticipated are often impossible or at best extremely painful.
> >
> > Really interesting!
> >
> > Both quotes suggest that buying into what appears to be a simple, low cost
> > solution may ultimately end up costing more and require complex extensions.
> >
> > The XML stack of technologies is pretty hefty, which turns off some people.
> > However, as the quotes from Michael and Eric suggest, the simplicity and
> > low cost of some other data technology may turn out to be an illusion.
> >
> > Comments?
> >
> > /Roger
> >
> >
> >
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> 
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