Re: Memory Allocation Flavor?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Joseph M. Newcomer (newcomer_at_flounder.com)
Date: 06/05/04 

Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 03:34:28 -0400

One company was noted for one of their interview questions: "Do you drive a car with an
automatic or manual tramsmission?". It turns out "manual transmission" was the wrong
answer. People who use those like to fiddle too much with the details.

I drive a car with a manual transmission. They are harder and harder to get, by the way.

Reason: have you ever tried to "rock" a car out of a snowdrift while using an automatic
transmission? Two states: no motion to the wheels, or they start spinning. If automatic
transmissions were well-engineered, we could use them effectively. My objection is poor
engineering.

Of course, I would never work for a company that evaluated programmers based on the kind
of transmission they prefer. I think this illustrates a failure in thinking. Sounds like
the kind of idea a failed psychology major might come up with (I've known good
psychologists, even roomed with one in college; they don't think of things like this,
because they're good at what they do).

Now, what would I rather do: spend hours tuning my car, replacing the points every n
thousand miles (I once had a set disintegrate, it Wasn't A Pretty Sight), or once every
100,000 miles replace the entire electronic ignition system. Answer: at today's service
rates, it is far cheaper to replace the parts. The only reason we needed user-serviceable
parts in the past is that they broke so often. I remember rebuilding gasoline engines,
refitting piston rings, replacing points and timing belts, grinding valves, replacing
warped heads, etc. But today, I buy a car; every 20K miles or so it costs me a few
hundred dollars in preventive maintenance, and I keep it, well, fifteen years for the last
one, eight for the current one (and I expect to keep it for 15). I have a nice abstraction
("The Subaru Dealership") and don't need to know the details of the implementation any
longer. I maintain abstact interfaces to plumbing (I once built a dual-processor
water-pump system when I was about 13, so if one pump failed we had hot failover to the
alternate pump, with manual switching. I did all the plumbing and wiring. Designed to be
simple enough to turn over that my mother could switch it herself. I was designing GUIs
then, now that I stop to think about it) but years ago I gave away my oxyacetalene torch,
and now when I need plumbing work, I have a subroutine call ("Standard Plumbing") that
makes my life easier. (I grew up on a farm; even a non-working farm has a lot of tractors,
engines, tires, and when the only water pump fails on Friday evening it makes for a long,
dry weekend. The farm finally got city water about five years ago, when a new line was run
to the housing development a few miles up the road). Been there, done that, don't need to
do it again in this lifetime.

Abstraction is a wonderful thing.
                                joe

On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 17:03:31 GMT, Balboos <balboos@masonicbrother.com.No.Spam> wrote:

>I guess so. But I really do miss the 'manly feeling'. Computer
>Programming, may fear, is going the way of the automobile: nicer sound
>systems, neat looking lights, but fewer user-serviceable parts. It's
>just not the same (sigh). At least my car has a standard transmission.
>
>Well - that's life - time to move on - get with the program, so to speak.
>
>I Love Uncle Bill.
>I Love Uncle Bill.
>I Love Uncle Bill.
>I . . .
>
>Balboos
>
>Johan Rosengren wrote:
>>
>> Even though I can feel sympathy for the desire to be a real man and battle
>> with the hardware directly, I for one don't miss the immense pain of
>> adapting output for different printers or graphics cards, to take one
>> example.
>>
>> Johan Rosengren
>> Abstrakt Mekanik AB
>>
>>

Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer@flounder.com
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm

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