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Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
71–80 of 107 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#72The physical world has peaked, in every metric. That makes software harder. Just wait until you can't buy a new computer just like that. Stick to vanilla Java/C+/HTML(5)/JSON/OpenGL/AL and make something great and you'll be fine. Note + is NOT a typo: it means C++ compiler with mostly C syntax. I only use string, stream and namespaces. Classes very rarely. Don't download things that are >1GB.
I think it is also because even with the more vanilla languages and APIs, they have also become moving targets. Java 1.4 felt like a sweet spot, similar C99, WebGL2/HTML5 etc. It seems like we are unable to say 'job done' and feature freeze them. And imagine the software stability if that was paired with a 5 year stable hardware platform. Maybe that is what you mean? that we approach a point with a 'last computer' that will be forever more optimized?
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
DaVinci Resolve. Proper video editing, VFX, and colour grading software as used on stuff you've seen in the cinema and on telly. Free, if you don't want the clever "neural engine" stuff or >4k timelines. Oh, you do want that? That'll be 300 quid then, and it's yours for life. They have never even charged for the updates, either. Of course, they make their money on cameras and control surfaces.
DaVinci and Ableton are both good examples to me. I love Ableton and use it a ton, but man does it crash almost every session for me. I finally bit the bullet and bought Resolve to use some of its non free effects and have already run into a number of bugs. I’m still very grateful I have access to that level of software, but it does feel like things being 90% complete at best is the standard these days.
What bugs are you running into with Resolve? There are certainly a few things you need to be a little careful of.
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#74My opinion is: software is building on higher- and higher-level components, and people don't know what's happening inside, hence they are not aware of the border cases. Testing is getting much more difficult. Also https://xkcd.com/2347/
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#75The physical world has peaked, in every metric. That makes software harder. Just wait until you can't buy a new computer just like that. Stick to vanilla Java/C+/HTML(5)/JSON/OpenGL/AL and make something great and you'll be fine. Note + is NOT a typo: it means C++ compiler with mostly C syntax. I only use string, stream and namespaces. Classes very rarely. Don't download things that are >1GB.
I think it is also because even with the more vanilla languages and APIs, they have also become moving targets. Java 1.4 felt like a sweet spot, similar C99, WebGL2/HTML5 etc. It seems like we are unable to say 'job done' and feature freeze them. And imagine the software stability if that was paired with a 5 year stable hardware platform. Maybe that is what you mean? that we approach a point with a 'last computer' th…
Yes, exactly: http://move.rupy.se/file/last_computer.png
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#76The year is 2036. I sit down at my 128 core 7 GHz computer with 1 Tb of DDR8 memory on my 10 gig fibre line. Discord and MS Teams still take 30 seconds to open.
How did they managed to get 7GHz CPU? Was this nothing more than a marketing way to sell good old 3.5GHz crystals?
It's like the thing where light bulb brightness is rated in watts, but it's not the amount of power actually used, it's how much power an incandescent bulb of the same brightness would use.
Numbers all become meaningless around 2029 and CPUs are now sold as "as powerful as a 7 GHz CPU". No attempt is made to specify anything else about the hypothetical 7 GHz CPU.
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#77The physical world has peaked, in every metric. That makes software harder. Just wait until you can't buy a new computer just like that. Stick to vanilla Java/C+/HTML(5)/JSON/OpenGL/AL and make something great and you'll be fine. Note + is NOT a typo: it means C++ compiler with mostly C syntax. I only use string, stream and namespaces. Classes very rarely. Don't download things that are >1GB.
>The physical world has peaked, in every metric. How do you figure that? Seems to me that things are still rapidly changing. Starlink, fusion, JWST, computer hardware, 3D printing etc...loads still happening.
All statistics show 2016 being peak in population growth in the western world.
Acceleration stopped 1968.
CPU improvements stalled around 2012.
GPU around 1030 so in 2017.
Energy is the master resource.
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
DaVinci and Ableton are both good examples to me. I love Ableton and use it a ton, but man does it crash almost every session for me. I finally bit the bullet and bought Resolve to use some of its non free effects and have already run into a number of bugs. I’m still very grateful I have access to that level of software, but it does feel like things being 90% complete at best is the standard these days.
What bugs are you running into with Resolve? There are certainly a few things you need to be a little careful of.
One is my fusion page always going back to a clip I’ve never opened in fusion. The bigger one is an insane rendering time that grows endlessly on a small clip (36+ hour estimated time before I finally cancelled it) that otherwise only takes a few minutes to render and display inside the program itself.
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The physical world has peaked, in every metric. How do you figure that? Seems to me that things are still rapidly changing. Starlink, fusion, JWST, computer hardware, 3D printing etc...loads still happening.
All statistics show 2016 being peak in population growth in the western world. Acceleration stopped 1968. CPU improvements stalled around 2012. GPU around 1030 so in 2017. Energy is the master resource.
You genuinely believe a CPU from 2023 to be no better than one from 2012?
Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
All statistics show 2016 being peak in population growth in the western world. Acceleration stopped 1968. CPU improvements stalled around 2012. GPU around 1030 so in 2017. Energy is the master resource.
You genuinely believe a CPU from 2023 to be no better than one from 2012?
I really believe in that. We used to have 4 cores in 2012 plus and this is slightly different than 2 cores (hardware cryptorgaphy in 2012th processor was more noticeable for me than extra cores). Modern processors eats significantly less energy and can hold significantly more of RAM and that's all I can notice.