TITLE: The Futility of Software
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 22, 2019  1:45 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 A thought from <TT>&lt;antirez&gt;</TT> in an essay on
<A HREF="http://antirez.com/news/129">
   the struggles of an open source maintainer</A>
 (paraphrased a bit):

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Sometimes I believe that writing software, while great, will
 never be huge like writing a book that will survive for
 centuries.  Not because software is not as great per se, but
 because as a side effect it is also useful... and will be
 replaced when something more useful is around.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 We write most software with a particular use in mind, so it
 is really only fair to compare it to non-fiction books,
 which also have a relatively short shelf life.  To be fair,
 though, not many fiction books survive for centuries, either.
 Language and fashion doom them almost as much as evolving
 technology destines most software to fade away within a
 generation, and a short generation at that.

 Still, I won't be surprised if the DNA of Smalltalk-80 or
 some early Lisp implementation lives on deep in a system
 that developers use in the 22nd century.
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