On "Worse is Better"

by DANIEL LYONS :: SEP 1, 2006 :: COMMENTS (0)

Back in the day, there was a concept popular among Unix-types, called Worse is Better. The idea, basically, is that you start with solutions that are close to perfect, but fairly simple. Then you layer on additional technology to take care of the remaining portions. Plan on reuse rather than everyone going through your gateway. This is in direct opposition to systems that try to be all things to all people all the time. You could certainly credit the "Agile Manifesto":http://www.agilemanifesto.org and the rise in popularity of Agile coding methods with some of this. I have some trouble pointing to what it is exactly they are reacting to, perhaps Java-based web development that seems so intrusive and overburdened. A better example would be the current state of affairs between Apple and Microsoft. Apple just announced "Time Machine":http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.html, which brings essentially real-time perfect revision control and backup to Mac OS X 10.5. Microsoft just recently "scrapped WinFS":http://politech.wordpress.com/2006/06/24/winfs-is-scrapped-parts-sold-for-junk/, which promised Spotlight-level searching and monitoring of the filesystem. They claim to have learned a lot about SQL and ADO.NET in the process, which only makes it sound weirder. One reason Microsoft produces such lame software, as a rule, is that it over-promises and then is forced to backpedal until it arrives at something which can ship. Hence, everything is overwrought when it could be simpler. Apple, on the other hand, never makes promises about what the next version of the OS will contain, and thus they rely on evolution rather than creation from scratch. HFS+ may be a lame filesystem, but it gets the job done. Apple recognizes that important innovations in file management are best obtained above the filesystem layer where the complexity can be managed. Notice the copycat project "Beagle":http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page which shares the same basic design, and is the first to make headway on the Linux platform. In general, Apple seems to have the right sort of loathing for work on the kernel, and they seem to avoid it the way any healthy and mentally-sound developer would. Perhaps this explains in part the strange connection between Rails developers and Mac OS X.

tags: AGILE, APPLE, MICROSOFT, RAILS, UNIX

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