Am 19.08.2011 17:45, schrieb Darren New:
> On 8/19/2011 8:33, clipka wrote:
>> Most bloody likely not.
>
> *Essentially*. Of course all the floors aren't built quite the same, but
> they're all variations on the theme. They're each a mostly a subroutine
> invoked with varying parameters, rather than being designed from scratch
> each time.
>
> Or, put it another way: You build a housing development with 400 homes.
> How many of those do you build from scratch, vs how many do you
> effortlessly copy after you've built the first one?
>
> There's an *essential* complexity to software that you don't get from
> hardware, because there's no such thing as a subroutine outside of the
> world of information.

It makes more sense to think of a piece of Software as a mold, or a 
blueprint.

In that sense, you can compare subroutines to parts (or, more precisely, 
part types); for instance, a mechanical device optimized for 
maintainability would use just one or two types of screws everywhere. 
And the crew aboard spacecraft Apollo 13 would have had one problem less 
if the Command Module and Lunar Module would have used the same 
"subroutine" (i.e. same design) for the CO2 filters, but for some reason 
the "functionality" was "implemented" twice, using different "interfaces".

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