Invisible wrote:
> BTW, how come this never happens with, say, designing cars?

Of course it does.
http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm
At this point, automobile design is more akin to moving from Word 2003 
to Word 2007.

Plus, I guess you never really worked on any of the older cars from the 
60's and 70's? Vacuum hoses to twist the distributor cap around to 
change the spark plug timing based on how hard you pressed the pedal?

I also expect there's a whole lot more ugly inside the design of the car 
than you see from outside. "Gee, I guess we'll have to multiplex the 
signals for the electric windows with the signals for the 'door open' 
warning light on the dash, since if we run *two* wires through the joint 
between door and body, the door won't close easily."

In any case, software is far, far more complex than anything mechanical. 
That's why when things get really complicated, you start adding 
computers to the cars.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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