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A software engineer might tell you that the fastest code is...

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Paul Keith:
A software engineer might tell you that the fastest code is the code that is never called.   Likewise, the most productive programmer is the one that solves the problem with the fewest commands.    Complexity is the arch-enemy of reliability, and its corollary, predictability.     Think about this:  A system with 50 required parts, each one having 95% reliability, has an overall reliability of .9550, or barely 8%!

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Cliche idea but I thought some of you may find the statement worth discussing.




Lessons from Grand Central Terminal


from: LewRockwell.com

Renegade:
And every problem can be solved with 1 more layer of abstraction. :)

From the article above:

Witness the bewildering sizes of recent pieces of legislation, or attempted legislation, drafted in true “we’ve really got it this  time” fashion.    Obamacare tips the scales at 2000+ pages. The recent financial reform bill is 3000+ (with the original Glass-Steagall act, whose re-birth some people are calling for, weighing in at a paltry 34 pages).   Even the government’s response to the tragically ongoing BP oil spill has been one of triangulation and determined-complexity.
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When it comes to legislation, it seems dangerous to have overly complex laws. Nobody can possibly know them all, and yet, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." Bollocks. You can't follow a law if you can't know it, and with legal complexity as it is...

Eóin:
And there I thought this might be a discussion on software design rather than using it as a bad analogy for politics...  :(

Renegade:
Actually, I think the analogy is valid. Complexity introduces additional margin for error, and with the bloat in bills and laws, well, the outcome can only be bad.

Eóin:
Ok, I was being a bit harsh maybe the analogy works in that sense, but I don't believe it's a 'useful' analogy.

Let's look at it this way, when are large, interconnected computer systems simple? I would suggest, as a hypothesis, that happens when all the parts play by the rules. Then you really can get this wonderful complexity of function from simplicity in the design.

But things get very complicated when you have to account for the edge cases, trying for example to recover from umpteen different errors all of which might require a different tactic. Then how about malicious attacks, inputs specially crafted to crash or subvert the systems? Trying to foresee those is beyond the capabilities of many programmers. Add to that backwards compatibility and well... by now elegance is taking a backseat.

Now what happens in political bills? Well keeping to the analogy we have whats described above. Existing legislation and near endless corner cases must be accounted for. Then any and all loopholes need to be closed because you're going to have thousands if not millions of people actively looking for some way to exploit the systems to their ends. It's no wonder these political bills run to thousands to pages.

But nonetheless maybe I was being a bit glib, I just really was hoping for an interesting programming related discussion.

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