Various folks seem to think that software once written never needs to be rethought

What a ridiculous supposition.

In my experience, there are no shortage of people who announce their new software and then get questioned about why they went to so much effort rather than just using this or that similar pre-existing software. And they mostly get asked that because their announcement of their new software fails to answer such questions (usually it fails to even acknowledge the existing similar solution much less make a good case for why the new solution is better for the motivating case, much less "in general").

This is so common that it has become quite common to start with the assumption that insufficient consideration was given to the option of not starting from scratch. I admit that I would prefer some people to moderate their devotion to evangelizing around that.

It seems to me that a more probable supposition is that some people get tired of having their from-scratch creations questioned and so invent a ridiculous pathology to help them dismiss such responses.

I even reinvent a lot of stuff. And I see a lot of skepticism that some reinvention of mine was worthwhile. If it bothered me, I'd put more effort into documenting the benefits of my versions as compared to others. But I probably also see less skepticism than many because I often feel little compulsion to evangelize my (re)creations. Go boldly bragging about your awesome (re)invention and you'll get extra helpings of counter points, naturally.

- tye        

In reply to Re^2: "Standing on the shoulders of giants" (rethink) by tye
in thread "Standing on the shoulders of giants" by locked_user sundialsvc4

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