[LINK] Softwre Licenses

[Tony Barry]

At 3:59 PM +1100 15/11/2000, KevinL wrote:
>but I'd
>question the assertion that "bigger software is more responsibly designed" as
>being particularly accurate - we'd expect to see bigger software being far
>more robust than it possibly is.  Or is this a sweeping generalisation? :

Software errors increase with the size of the project but not in a 
linear manner. I suspect they increase at the coding level with a 
power law. At a higher level they increase in a different way and 
take us into areas which are locally optimal but in the wider sense a 
mistake. In the same way evolutionary algorithms can lead you to the 
top of a foothill rather than the mountain.

For instance increasingly communication is via email but we keep 
being trapped in word processor technology designed for print 
communication and send these files around as attachments often 
causing problems at the other end.

Many small programs will surely be more stable than one huge one that 
does everything like the various "Office" suites. For that reason I 
try to keep to shareware/freeware or software derived from 
shareware/freeware.

Tony
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On Aboriginal Policy
"And if governments will not act, then this is a matter on which
people must act to secure a government that will.The dignity and
self esteem of Australia at some point will demand it."

Malcolm Fraser 24 Aug 2000