Famous Laws of Software Development (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#91

Post by sagartewari01 » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

dreta wrote: post #4

I know this is harsh, but if you're a web developer, and your blog requires a loading screen to read, at least on mobile, then maybe you should take a step back, and learn to program, before you start writing about programming.

No you're not being harsh. That site loads 1.3 mb of js, even though it doesn't have any dynamic content at all. The small header images for related articles you see along the right side are loaded as full hd images (probably the fault of wordpress theme).

Looks like the author has a real good internet connection and just hacked together a site over a lunch. Web devs should really limit there internet connection to 100k while testing their sites.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#92

Post by ComodoHacker » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:16 PM UTC

Could someone explain the last one, Norvig's Law:

"Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again (in any number of months)."

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#93

Post by ComodoHacker » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

redcodenl wrote: post #38

Regarding Conway's Law: We have found that by changing our software/system architecture we have also inadvertently changed our organisation structure. - Inverse Conway Law or just Roy's Law ;-) Before we had four cross functional teams, working on a single application, everyone felt responsible for it, worked overtime to fix bugs etc, we had good communication between the teams. But after we switched to microservices…

Could less overtimes be considered a positive outcome?

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#94

Post by BerislavLopac » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #54

BerislavLopac wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They stopped talking to each other because they didn't share any code, no issues... they stopped having lunch together, some things got way worse in the organisation, all sparked by a 'simple' architectural change, moving to microservices. Honestly, this sounds like an improvement.

How is people not talking to each other an improvement?

Oh, it is definitely a problem from a social/cultural standpoint. But from the point of software architecture (and, therefore, development organisation), too much (or even any) communication between teams working on discreet, separate units can become detrimental.

It is perfectly fine that the people communicate, and even helping each other to improve tech skill should be encouraged; however, decisions about their respective products should be contained within each team, with clearly defined interfaces and usage documentation.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#95

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

ComodoHacker wrote: post #92

Could someone explain the last one, Norvig's Law: "Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again (in any number of months)."

2x 50% penetration = 100% penetration.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#96

Post by tonyedgecombe » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #54

BerislavLopac wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They stopped talking to each other because they didn't share any code, no issues... they stopped having lunch together, some things got way worse in the organisation, all sparked by a 'simple' architectural change, moving to microservices. Honestly, this sounds like an improvement.

How is people not talking to each other an improvement?

Presumably if you don't like other people then it's an improvement. At a guess I'd say that covers about quarter of our industry.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#97

Post by BerislavLopac » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

jcadam wrote: post #84

marcosdumay wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only true if any given problem is isolated on a single service, because while you are making intra-service problems much cheaper and faster to fix, you are also making inter-service problems almost impossible to fix.

Good point. I've seen situations where nobody would take ownership of a bug and fix it - you just had teams pointing fingers at each other...

This is precisely a symptom of unclear ownership responsibilities.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#98

Post by jnty » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

ComodoHacker wrote: post #92

Could someone explain the last one, Norvig's Law: "Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again (in any number of months)."

Double 50% is 100%, so assuming your market doesn't significantly grow, it's impossible to double your market share again.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#99

Post by mrob » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

enriquto wrote: post #43

does it work for you? The site only shows a beating gray circle.

As is often the case with these kinds of abuses of JavaScript, Firefox's Reader View solves the problem.

Re: Famous Laws of Software Development (2017)

#100

Post by mojuba » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 4:26 PM UTC

Oh please, not the Knuth's "principle" again. Optimization is a skill, it's not evil. A skilled engineer can build sufficiently good systems without wasting much extra time on optimizations.