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Content-type: text/plain
Hi:
As an aftermath of the CERN Oberon Day I wrote a short story. Hope you
will like it. Enjoy!
Wojtek
---------------------------------------------------
Modern software enginnering
A civil engineer once built a bridge. For lack of materials he left
several big holes. He then declared that holes increased freedom, namely
the drivers have freedom to either drive around holes or fall into the
holes. The engineer kept saying that drivers know what they are doing, and
it is not up to the enginner to teach the drivers how to drive. The
engineer put a sign on each side of the bridge, saying that results of
falling into a hole are unpredictable, so it is better to avoid doing
that. The signs also warned that holes were not marked in any way, so
drivers should generally be cautious. The signs allowed power drivers not
to be cautious, if they prefered to drive fast for efficiency reasons.
Soon an industry sprang up, selling ultrasound and other hole detectors,
as well as maps of the bridge with holes marked on paper. Several authors
wrote books, such as "Avoid Holes", "Holes for dummies", and other helpful
literature. Many jobs were created to help avoid the holes. Rescue kits
were deposited to help a driver get out of a hole when he fell down into
one. Companies were doing good business plugging the holes using a variety
of ad-hoc recipes. Economy was booming because hole-prevention industry
was very profitable.
The driver community was grateful to the engineer, because it was now
possible to cross the river, and only a few victims fell into the holes.
Victims were mostly novice drivers, what supported the engineer's
statement that drivers should learn how to be responsible for themselves.
A professor from Zurich built a few bridges without holes on his personal
property. He also wrote a book describing how to built bridges that would
be safe for the public. His constructions were torn down when press
alleged he was trying to depress the economy by targeting the hole -
prevention industry.
One day a power engineer from Bell Labs arrived to erect a more powerful
object-oriented bridge. Though he had enough building supplies, he
incorporated the original hole layout into the new bridge for backward
compatibility. He also added a few new holes of his own design, like for
example a leaking hole, a dangling hole, and an overloaded hole, that were
hard to avoid by even the most seasoned drivers. Some drivers expressed
their concern. However, most drivers liked the appearance of the new
bridge, that was quite imposing. The hole - prevention industry
enthusiastically responded by upgrading their offering to "Avoid Holes++"
and "Holes for dummies++". There was great demand for the new hole
-avoidance tools, because driving on the new bridge was quite dangerous,
and many cars got badly damaged. Commercial trucking companies sent their
drivers to hole-avoidance courses. The commercial drivers were prevented
from using any other bridge, in order to maximize the benefit of the
training they received. Blueprints of new bridges were carefully reviewed
to make sure they too incorporated a compatible hole layout, such that the
installed base of hole - avoidance tools could be universally used. Hole -
avoidance industry was growing at a record pace. Several new types of
holes were proposed at annual "More Holes Is Better" trade shows. The
economy was booming like never before. The power enginner got elected to
the Civil Engineering Hall of Fame.
Happy C++ everybody!
Anonymous.
--------------------------------------------
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Received on Sat Mar 20 2004 - 03:23:47 UTC