You make some excellent points. It is hard to write code that won't "break" if the underlying OS changes significantly.

Let's suppose that we start to make some software "bricks". That is to say we lay down some basic rules which, by fiat, will remain fixed. Future computing systems can have extra functions, but they must support our fixed standards. For example let's say that ASCII defines how our text files are encoded. (OK, OK I realize this is behind the times for good reason). Using a set of standards like this ( "bricks" ) we could begin to engineer some long lived software.

It really isn't too different from some of the things we have today. Email message from 10 or 15 years ago are readable, and sendable by today's email clients, even if the email clients are vastly different (improved? hmmm, maybe not). There are some "bricks" out there already, and I think we'll see more of them in the future, especially if we consciously try to create them.

-------------------------------------
Nothing is too wonderful to be true
-- Michael Faraday

In reply to Re^2: (OT): 200-year software by freddo411
in thread (OT): 200-year software by dragonchild

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