About a decade from now an art student is going to create a movie called Building Mozilla which uses the interminable build times of a software application as a metaphor for how our daily struggle for success is ultimately made meaningless by advances in technology. If an exceptionally talented art student makes the movie he will use a second metaphor to show how true forward progress seems to always be propagated through faster yet inferior solutions rather than truly superior technology (i.e. Worse Is Better).
I see this second metaphor taking the shape of a mutant ram who is born with straight horns which allow him to slay predators, but his deformity prevents him from participating in mating rituals without killing those around him. Later the predator-free environment is devastated by unchecked population growth on the part of the non-mutant rams. In the final scene the ram starves to death while left abandoned in the wasteland left by the out of control ram population.
Of course, the hypothetical art student a decade from know can build Mozilla in 18 seconds on his computer that's the result of all of us technical folks struggling daily for the next 10 years... pardon while I have a moment of hypothetical loathing for that hypothetical schmuck.
On the bright side, Linux is awfully good at that multitasking thing.
Programming tip for the day:
Alcohol and makefiles do not mix. You are not programming faster, you are noticing mistakes slower. Actually, if my former lead programmer is any indication alcohol and any programming language do not mix.
And no, Mozilla still hasn't finished building.
Posted by matt at July 18, 2003 01:02 AM