[X4U] "Backwards Compatibility"

[Eugene]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 02:26:45AM CDT, Christopher Collins <maclist at analogdigital.com.au> wrote:
>
> On 18/06/2008, at 1:17 PM, Zane H. Healy wrote:
>>
>>   Backwards compatibility should be any OS vendors primary objective.
>
> What a load of absolute crap this line is!
>
> It is "backwards compatibility" that always limits innovation.

Very true.

> Just look at Windows. So many of the design decisions are and were made 
> for "backwards compatibility". So now we have major parts of XP and Vista 
> that are unbelievably limited because of that very design flaw.
>
> And that?s what backwards compatibility is, it's a design flaw.

I wouldn't call it a design flaw.  It's more like evolution.  Things are
designed based on the knowledge we have at the time and the technologies
we're limited to at the time.  As time progresses, knowledge increases,
technologies improve, and we find newer and better ways of doing things.
The problem however isn't with the newer ways: it's the ever-increasing
cost of supporting the older ways.

It's like having dogs.  They are energetic, provide companionship, help
defend you and your property, etc.  But after a while, they get old and
they die.  Do we stick them on IV fluids, outfit them with little powered
doggie wheelchairs?  No.  We let them live a full life, and let them die.
And then get a new dog.

People stuck on old software/hardware: let it die so that the rest of us
can live.


-- 
Eugene
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/