RE: Development: A Structured Problem Area?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Thomas [mailto:dave-kbbdpT5sCmpWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 9:32 AM
> To: pragprog-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [pragprog] Development: A Structured Problem Area?
> 
> 
> 
> > I am unclear about how software exhibits emergent behavior. From my 
> > understanding of the complexity literature, emergence can 
> occur when 
> > many independent agents with simple rules interact; the 
> Game of Life 
> > being an example. I don't see software as being structured 
> in the same 
> > way - will you volunteer an example?
> 
> Someone over here writes an XML parsing library. Someone over 
> there writes a simple templating system. Google opens up 
> their web API.
> 
> A programmer in Boise combines these elements to create a web 
> page that finds good restaurant/movie combinations.
> 
> That's an emergent application. Small chunks combined in 
> unexpected ways to produce new value. The application _could_ 
> have been written ground up, using now pre-existing elements. 
> But it is unlikely to have happened.
> 
> And that's where the non-linearity comes in. In the old days, 
> we wrote specs, then wrote applications. We still do that 
> today, but the exciting stuff happens when folks notice 
> patterns and exploit opportunities. Not all value comes from 
> specifications.

Don't we spec the XML parsing library, the simple templating system, the
Google web API?

So the authors of the components might not have foreseen the uses, but
the programmer in Boise does. That's not emergent as I think we were
discussing, when a piece of software exhibits emergence on its own. We
were discussing software that is accidentally a complex adaptive system.

Derek Richardson


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/nhFolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pragprog/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     pragprog-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/