[mdlug] Parallella: A Supercomputer For Everyone by Adapteva — Kickstarter

[Michael Mol]

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Adam Tauno Williams
<awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 2012-10-11 at 16:23 -0400, Michael Mol wrote:

[snip]

>> Yes, a programmer with the mindset of a 1980s assembly coder could
>> achieve absolutely amazing performance on a modern system,
>
> He could.  But I really, seriously, do not believe he could create a
> compelling application.  He'd have to write *tons* of code to work in a
> modern environment.
>
>> All that 'bloat' is really a set of tools designed to allow
>
> Assuming it really is "bloat" and not functionality I really want.  If
> someone is using a computer the same way for the same purpose they did
> in 1984 - then yes, it is all bloat.

Incidentally, you're making my point.

>
>> programmers to get useful products to end-users in a timely fashion.
>> Without it, the computing world would look much as it did in the early
>> 1980s; development would be limited to hobbyists and dev shops running
>> their own code on timeshare systems with services rented out to
>> customers.
>
> err... you mean they'd be using a "cloud"? :)

What goes around comes around, in a pendulum-like fashion. :)

Though it was a heck of a lot more expensive then, and without the
'bloat' software I don't think we could have had the explosion of
client-side software. Heck, I don't think the modern 'cloud' would be
as cheap as it is.


-- 
:wq