"David T. Lewis" <lewis at mail.msen.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 09:02:54PM -0800, Tim Rowledge wrote:
> > 
> > Until recently it has been possible to argue against standard parts in
> > software because computers were too slow to make anything other than
> > minutely tweaked code to do any useful job. I rather think that that

Personally I don't think the absence of a "parts" industry in software
has much to do with computer speed etc. I think Brad Cox idea about this
problem is correct:

Search down to "ATOMS VERSUS BITS" on:
http://virtualschool.edu/cox/pub/97IEEE/

I haven't read much of Brad's work but this part has stuck with me - the
absence of mass in software strikes me as a fundamental difference
compared to the rest of the industry.

On the other hand I don't think Brad's "proposed solutions" like his
ideas on micropayments etc are any good. But that doesn't stop his
analysis of he problem from being correct. :-)

regards, Göran

PS. I discussed this in part, especially regarding the "death" of the
software tools market, with David Simmons at OOPSLA over a few beers but
we didn't really have the same views.