Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Modern software often lacks robust architecture, relying instead on sheer volume of code and labor.
- In plain terms
- Many programs are built messily with too much code and not enough design.
- What can you take from it?
- Poor design leads to fragile systems that require excessive effort to maintain.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How much debt is acceptable?
- Can brute force ever be sustainable?
Another view
Not all software needs structural elegance; some prototypes are meant to be temporary.
More from Alan Kay
Technology is anything that wasn't around when you were born.
Permalink to quote #5 OOP to me means only messaging, local retention and protection and hiding of state-process, and extreme late-binding of all things. It can be done in Smalltalk…
Permalink to quote #7 Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term. Basically, a lot of the problems that computing h…
Alan KayAlan Kay quote #8 If something's expensive to develop, and somebody's not going to get paid, it won't get developed. So you decide: Do you want software to be written, or not?
Bill GatesBill Gates quote #1 Architects know that some kinds of design problems are more personal than others. One of the cleanest, most abstract design problems is designing bridges. Ther…
Paul GrahamPaul Graham quote #1