Re: Development: A Structured Problem Area?

Quoting Chris Morris <chrismo-jPI29ImzmbLYtjvyW6yDsg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Derek Richardson wrote:
> 
> >(3) Why is it possible to write an optimizing Java compiler that doesn't
> suffer
> >from emergence but not higher-level systems?
> >
> Why didn't they just write the first compilers to be optimized, such 
> that you wouldn't have to distinguish those compilers as "optimized"?
> 
> I'd say those optimized compilers were born from emergence, not suffered 
> from.

The point is that the compiler itself is not a complex adaptive system that
exhibits unexpected behavior. Definitely, the human writer of the compiler does
all sorts of non-linear stuff. But the compiler manages to automate a part of
software development that used to be done by human experts and, I think we'll
all agree, generally does it well. So I am searching for arguments that further
automation is not feasible that wouldn't have been applicable to the efforts to
write the first compilers. If the argument applies equally well to compilers,
then the fact that compilers exist and work well rebuts the argument.

Derek Richardson


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