a bit of ad-hoc coding for a simple gameMaybe a bit of ad-hoc specification would help?What are the lifecycles for Player and Token?Players continue to exist after a game ends, do Tokens?Do tokens exist independent of Players? When are they created?Easier to think and then code.

I'd rather make a WinZip self-extrator that runs a Python (or other) script, or even a little setup exeAs a user, it isn't the install that's difficult it's the uninstall.

Finally, one last question I've got to ask, if roles (i.e. Interfaces) are so important, then why aren't they also objects?They can be... see 'Adding Dynamic Interfaces to Smalltalk'http://www.jot.fm/jot/issues/issue_2002_05/article1/index_html

The 60/60 rule: 60 percent of software's dollar is spent on maintenance, and 60 percent of that maintenance is enhancement. Enhancing old software is, therefore, a big deal. Ada has demonstrated over 20 years that programming language design can halve lifecycle costs. Ada encourages its users to spend more time in writing to describe their...

These definitions are paraphrased from the "Handbook of Computer Science and Engineering" - the chapter is available online http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cardelli97type.htmltyped - languages where variables can be given typesuntyped - languages that do not restrict the range of variablesexplicitly typed - types are part of the language...

> all of these issues must be addressed separately > if the Java application is to run consistently and> smoothly in every platform that Java supportsMuch of the reality of cross-platform GUI portability was already well understood from Smalltalk implementations before Java hyped "write once run everywhere".VisualWorks Smalltalk already had the...

why people are often confused: "weak" typing can sound as if it means you can get away with anything that you want, which isn't true, and so it might be less confusing to use the term "latent".'What I'm finding confusing is the continued use of the vague perjorative terms "strong typing" "weak typing" and now "latent typing"!Let's be explicit:1...

There are references in:"A brief history of design patterns"http://www.bell-labs.com/user/cope/Patterns/ICSE96/node3.html(I usually forget that interesting work was being done in C++ as-well-as Smalltalk: Jim Coplien's Idioms, William Opdyke's work on Refactoring)

poses subtly related questions and in two ways: are they true for the current situation, are they true in principle. depends on the target software system Rather than using the traditional systems vs applications distinction, wouldn't it be more useful to acknowledge that there are different roles in software development? Designing application...

Deja vu all-over-again.Metrics and Laws of Software Evolution - The Nineties Viewhttp://www.ece.utexas.edu/~perry/work/papers/feast1.pdf(Lehman and Belady have been recording laws of software evolution since 1974. It's taught on some CS courses)A unified theory of software evolutionhttp://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/08/lehman/print.html

companies are willing to outsource overseas means that... Simply put, they are accustomed to a lack of quality.Exactly.

outsourcing of IT jobs... see the quality of the software as unimportant Perhaps not, InfoSys (and Wipro) seem to consider quality a selling point: 1999 ISO9000 Recertification, Level 4 for Banking Business Unit, SEI CMM Level 5 assessed Edsger Dijkstra had some ideas on the rejection of formal program design in the US:"- The ongoing process of...

various cheats like casting and having the language use a richer notion of typesWhy is having a richer notion of types cheating?

That we don't understand science, engineering, design - perhaps suggests we are lacking in fundamental formal training?This is a funny case of missing the pointThe Jack Reeves article has some interesting lines:"We in the software business are close to being engineers, but we need a couple of perceptual changes.""Software development is still...

Hey Alex, we aren't even disagreeing, merely giving emphasis to different timescales. I chose to respond to what seemed like odd statements of Fred Brooks' ideas. I cannot agree with "great designers just are"Maybe my shorthand summary was too short ;-)It isn't formal training that makes or differentiates great designers it's talent. (In MMM...