Why Software is So Bad
, from Technology Review. An interesting read that makes the case that unlike other engineering disciplines, the quality of software is regressing over time. Here's why:
"If a bridge survives a 500-kilogram weight and a 50,000-kilogram weight, Pfleeger notes, engineers can assume that it will bear all the values between. With software we can�t make those assumptions�we can�t interpolate."
Systems have gotten more complex, and since CPU and disk space is cheap, programmers have gotten lazily inefficient, resulting in poor quality code being written--to the tune of "100 to 150 errors in every thousand lines of code".
Definitely a worthwhile read.
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