GUIs 'forced' on people (was Re: Here's something to consider.)

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sat Sep 19 12:02:57 1998

< One of the goals of the Apple I was to create a low cost machine.
<
< Basically I just wanted to give an apple example that not all engineers
< all of the time, want to built the biggest, and most expensive things.
< That is a bad generalization.

It indeed is a bad generalization. As an engiener myself I found it
annoying but let it pass.

Actually the rules are simple. Good, Fast, Cheap... Pick any two.

Enginering is about compromize, tradeoff and innovation. For a given
product there are often many ways to implement but more often than not
considerations at higher levels may dictate which are the best ways to
go. They are not always bad either. If your corperate strategy is
fault tolerence the hardware is likely not have extra bits, redundancy
and other things needed to make that happen. That can and is more costly.
On the other hand if you making really low cost means something else takes
precedent.

Some thins are a surprize to the uninitiated. For example fewer chips
fewer interconnections and connectors often means lower cost and to most
people surprize higher realiability. So the idea of Good, Fast and Cheap
is not as obvious as first stated.

Allison
Received on Sat Sep 19 1998 - 12:02:57 BST