[Beowulf] Stroustrup regarding multicore

stephen mulcahy smulcahy at aplpi.com
Wed Sep 3 07:31:31 PDT 2008


Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> How it is possible that people managed to read that much and hear
> exactly the inverse of my central thesis, I don't understand at
> all. Perhaps everyone just hears what they want to.

Sheesh, I resisted for a long time but ....

The scenario above pretty much sums up the situation I see with one of 
the softer sides of software engineering - the requirements gathering, 
which I'd see as fundamental to a successful (software, or indeed 
general IT project). IMHO, the most important part of most projects is 
figuring out what the heck the "stakeholder"[1] wants in the first 
place. No matter how good your programming is, if your requirements are 
wrong - you're heading in the wrong direction entirely (a bit like 
building a really neat spacecraft and then launching it towards Pluto 
instead of Mars[2]).

This is SoftwareAnalysisAndDesign at beowulf.org right?

-stephen

[1] Am I the only one that can't help using that word and visualing a 
Van Helsing type waving a wooden stake around? Whether the typical 
project stakeholder is trying to drive the stake through the heart of 
the project or the heart of nasties trying to drag the project down is 
an exercise for the reader.

[2] Some of those with a background in directing spacecraft lurking on 
this list may poke holes in my analogy by noting a trajectory to Pluto 
would take you right my Mars which will really take from my point.

-- 
Stephen Mulcahy, Applepie Solutions Ltd., Innovation in Business Center,
GMIT, Dublin Rd, Galway, Ireland.  +353.91.751262  http://www.aplpi.com
Registered in Ireland, no. 289353 (5 Woodlands Avenue, Renmore, Galway)



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