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Re: Formalism and complexity

• To: David Megginson <dmeggin@a...>
• Subject: Re: Formalism and complexity
• From: Ian Graham <igraham@i...>
• Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 16:42:01 -0500 (EST)
• Cc: XML Developers List <xml-dev@l...>
• In-reply-to: <3FF70FBC.2060905@a...>
• References: <5347A829-30F7-11D8-8F9B-000A95CCC59E@x...><6.0.0.22.2.20031218111610.03b7fd50@n...><3FE1D762.30408@a...> <1073088488.3946.19.camel@z...><82BA57E2-3E1B-11D8-A0F8-000A95CCC59E@x...> <3FF70FBC.2060905@a...>
• Reply-to: Ian Graham <ian.graham@u...>

On Sat, 3 Jan 2004, David Megginson wrote:

> Michael Champion wrote:
>
> >  It's hard to argue with the proposition that logic, set theory, and a
> > deep understanding of RDBMS dogma (or OO dogma, for that matter)
> > *should* help one build successful complex software systems.
> > Unfortunately, I don't know of much evidence that it really *does* help.
>
> It would probably work very well if problems remained constant throughout a
> project (like, say, building a bridge across a river), but in high tech,
> they do not -- we have only a limited need for people who can create an
> algorithm to do a computation in Olog(n) instead of On(log(n)), but we have
> an enormous need for people who can track changing requirements and
> userscapes and refactor code violently and continuously to match them, and
> we have an even bigger need for people who help build consensus and
> communities of users.  It's mostly flexibility and unscientific grunt work
> that brings success.

Yup - figuring out what you want to develop (let alone how) seems the
bigger battle.

This reminds me of the "limits to software estimation"[1] article, which
relates the software estimation problem to the algorithmic complexity of
the problem, particularly in the large problem size/complexity limit [I
thought this was discussed on this list before, but can't find any
reference to it].

Funny how everything seems to end up at complexity, one way or another ;-)

Ian
--
[1] http://www.idiom.com/~zilla/Work/Softestim/softestim.html

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Formalism and complexity
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

• References:
  • Re: Another mutated variant of the 'PowerPoint makes you dumb' story
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
  • Formalism and complexity - was Re: Another mutated variant ...
    • From: Michael Champion <mc@x...>
  • Re: Formalism and complexity
    • From: David Megginson <dmeggin@a...>

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