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| Authored by: eric76 on Friday, May 10 2013 @ 06:34 PM EDT |
Sometimes faster isn't necessarily better.
Years ago I had a software package that I had written on a VAX that took about
an hour to rebuild the entire package.
I'd schedule the daily development rebuild about the time I wanted to duck out
of the office to the local 50's/60's diner for a slice of pie and some ice tea.
A complete rebuild on the same package today (if I were still working on that
package) would probably take two or three minutes, at most -- not nearly enough
time for a decent afternoon break.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 10 2013 @ 07:54 PM EDT |
Think of something like real-time software. You have to adjust the wing
settings 40 times a second, or the wings break off. The speed is *critical* to
making this work - you simply cannot replace it with a human and paper.
But when you're talking about real-time systems, you're almost always talking
about a specific machine. It's the computer, and the sensors, and the wing
flaps. It's not just an algorithm running on a general-purpose computer
somewhere.
MSS2[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: tiger99 on Sunday, May 12 2013 @ 05:11 PM EDT |
| Link An
engine boy invented the self-acting steam engine, which only did what a manually
sequenced engine could do, except that is could run much faster. The initial
invention does not seem to have been patented, and rightly so, as by the very
reasoning that we use about software patents, it should have been ineligible, as
a human could do the same thing, only not as fast. But later there were
numerous patent battles which severely retarded progress, and at least one, the
crank, must have had lots of prior art as it was well-known technology. There is
a lesson there. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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