Design evidence # 111: The heart

Your argument was that the complexity and inter-dependence
evident in living systems was an indication of design.I said that complexity and design are unrelated (in the sense
that your argument requires) pointing out that simplicity is
the hallmark of good design.PaulK pointed out that many software projects (due to external
constraints on time, money, personnel, etc.) have an ad hoc,
iterative, additive development that leads to excessively
complex, highly inter-dependent software architectures.You have now suggested that we cannot claim design without
knwing what is good, simple, etc.Hopefully you can now see why it is that complexity cannot be
used to infer design ... no matter how much may wish to see
design.I opened a thread some time ago asking for design criteria.
Not suprisingly there was little relevant response.Oh, and I might add for those who argue from IC, that I have seen
software systems which have been built up in an ad hoc manner
over time that have increased in function (and complexity ... or
messiness as I call it ) where, due to the way that things
have been added, if a function is removed the whole program fails
to work ... and yet there is a revision history that shows
how the current program was developed iteratively.

Peter writes:

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What language is that in? 8000 lines seems a little
sedate {edited 'cause I forgot the smiley}

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COBOL on an AS400.------------------
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schrafinator writes:

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Wow, I've never heard of getting MORE wisdom teeth than the usual four.

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Nor had I, until the dentist told me he would have cut partially into my jawbone in order to remove my all 5 my wisdom teeth.------------------
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Admin writes:

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The software for this website is 43,000 lines of Perl code.

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That 8000 old line is for a program that reads threw all the transaction for the day and splits them off to extract file for 20 odd reports.------------------
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Peter, I think this little side topic of sorts deserves a topic of its own (even if there ends up being little further discussion).As it is, it is buried somewhere where it's going to get lost.How about starting an ID topic on this. Maybe something like "Computer Programs: Intelligent Design and Evolution". Include a link back to a relevent message in this topic.MooseAdded by edit:
There is now a new topic, "Software Maintenance, Intelligent Design, and Evolution", at http://EvC Forum: Software Maintenance, Intelligent Design, and Evolution -->EvC Forum: Software Maintenance, Intelligent Design, and Evolution
It was started by lpetrich.[This message has been edited by minnemooseus, 03-05-2003]

Ouch!!!!!

Holy crap, that sounds terrible!Were they all lined up or stacked on top of each other?