←back to thread

752 points dceddia | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.412s | source
Show context
qsantos ◴[] No.36449864[source]
I am always frustrated with the usual answer to these kinds of demonstrations: “Yes, but these new apps are doing so much more. Also, security.”

Except, that they are not, not at the time they are launched at least. And even if they were, we have a hundred-fold more compute power, with a hundredth of the latency for memory and storage.

Regarding security, it should have negligible effect in most cases. At least, effects should not be perceptible to the human mind.

It really is just a consequence of the way we develop software nowadays. We do not need to optimize programs to make them work at all, so we just do not. We work on new features, and we hire people who can churn new features.

And we decided to optimize for developer time, instead of user time. So, instead of painstakingly developing a Web site, a native application, an Android app, and an iOS app, we just push Web apps everywhere.

replies(5): >>36449990 #>>36450164 #>>36453158 #>>36454592 #>>36456822 #
1. tracker1 ◴[] No.36450164[source]
And when computers will be 30% faster in a couple years, vs. multiplying the developer time/cost it's a trade off.
replies(1): >>36451538 #
2. rahen ◴[] No.36451538[source]
What the hardware gives, the developer takes away. Developers will get computers 30% faster, then release 30% slower software, in a never ending cycle.

Right now, an M1 is pretty fast, but wait until all developers use it and it starts to become barely adequate.

Rephrasing Wirth's law: It takes slow hardware to develop fast software.