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At least part of the problem is...
...that it's become the practice to write enormous, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, all-things-to-all-users applications that carry around huge amounts of capability of which any given user only uses a small fraction.

A far more efficient approach is to have a small core app (or, for that matter, kernel) that dynamically loads and unloads modules as needed, and the bonus to that approach is that it can make far better use of parallelism. It's tougher programming--you generally have to have, and use, explicit synchronisnig mechanisms to keep the modules from tripping over each other--but it will make much better use of architectures and hardware that provide concurrency.

It's probably too late for most of the huge apps out there. Retrofitting modular programming into monolithic code probably, in general terms, can't be done--the internal interfaces probably just aren't clean enough. But it's a great opportunity for new apps writers.

Posted by: Henry Miller   Posted on: 05/27/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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The size of software is following  bjbrock | 05/25/07
Curious, what has this to do  No_Ax_to_Grind | 05/25/07
It's why software is not  bjbrock | 05/25/07
Well, obviously the "power"  No_Ax_to_Grind | 05/25/07
The second paragraph  bjbrock | 05/25/07
That would be Parkinson's Law  John L. Ries | 05/25/07
Bingo  Jack-Booted EULA | 05/28/07
Interesting... Fear of patents stiffling software performance innovation?  Basic Logic | 05/26/07
perhaps  CobraA1 | 05/27/07
You're not a programmer, are you? happy  wolf_z | 05/26/07
There is some truth to this  John L. Ries | 05/26/07
Not that easy to do really.  No_Ax_to_Grind | 05/25/07
It Comes down  Stuka | 05/25/07
You write to what's available  John Zern | 05/25/07
Hypocrisy from Intel  Robert.Novak@... | 05/25/07
Only cheap  Stuka | 05/25/07
Windows and Linux run on the same Intel (or AMD) hardware.  HypnoToad72 | 05/25/07
I think  Suicida| | 05/25/07
This is where Linux outshines Windows.  linux for me | 05/26/07
You're absolutely right HypnoToad72  GeiselS@... | 05/27/07
Contrasting hardware and software  kmatzen@... | 05/25/07
And this is news, or a law?! Sounds more like forgotten common sense.  HypnoToad72 | 05/25/07
Back in the days . . .  Ken_z | 05/26/07
Anyone Remember the AMIGA ?  GeiselS@... | 05/26/07
Yes, I remember how slow they were.  No_Ax_to_Grind | 05/26/07
You obviously didn't own one  GeiselS@... | 05/27/07
As usual  wgraue | 06/03/07
At least part of the problem is...  Henry Miller | 05/27/07
Why?  in-DUH-vidual | 05/27/07
No Moore's Law?  Grayson Peddie | 05/27/07
Don't know  in-DUH-vidual | 05/28/07
The thing about Moore's Law...  Wolfie2K3 | 05/29/07
Exotic tasks  in-DUH-vidual | 05/30/07
Microsoft Windows 2008  mighetto | 05/28/07
back in '90 i hada chance to write a PPprogram in Fortran for a connection  wessonjoe | 05/29/07
All is about optimization  PhilippeV | 06/01/07

What do you think?

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