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At 09:06 PM 11/3/2007, Mark Miller wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On Nov 3, 2007 1:35 PM, Jonathan
S. Shapiro <<a href="mailto:shap@eros-os.com">shap@eros-os.com</a>>
wrote:
<dl>
<dd>All of which reminds me of an orthogonal point: people use the cost
of
<dd>legacy repair as an excuse to do nothing, and routinely ignore the
fact
<dd>that new programs naturally replace old at a surprisingly rapid
pace.
<dd>This raises the question: why are we (i.e. the field, and
particularly
<dd>academia) not focusing much greater attention on improved
<dd>software/security engineering for virgin programs?
</dl><br>
I just wanted to say that this is an excellent point that should be
shouted from the rooftops. <br><br>
Do any of us here, by any chance, know of any kind of quantitative data
regarding how rapid this pace of replacement is, in any important
context?</blockquote><br>
Hmmmm. I expect the context of software for scientific
computing<br>
might be about the worst area for your thesis. There are a<br>
lot of "dusty decks" still in that area. I might be able
to<br>
get some data from that area if it seems worthwhile. I suppose<br>
ideal would be average line age and std deviation for a<br>
variety of codes? I doubt that data so quantitative is<br>
available. Still, there might be something. More likely
to<br>
be available might be something like when the code was<br>
first written and approximately how much of the source<br>
is still from the original coding. Would that be of any<br>
use? I ask because it might be a bit difficult digging<br>
out such information.<br><br>
Off topic: If you haven't seen Comet Holmes, I recommend<br>
taking a look:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/10862521.html">
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/10862521.html<br><br>
</a>You can see that it is fuzzy now with the naked eye.<br>
With even a small pair of binoculars it has sort of<br>
a weird "eyeball" appearance that I think is worth<br>
viewing e.g.:<br><br>
<a href="http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/Holmes-by-Sean_Oct-27_800.jpg" eudora="autourl">
http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/Holmes-by-Sean_Oct-27_800.jpg<br>
<br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
--Jed
<a href="http://www.webstart.com/jed-signature.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.webstart.com/jed-signature.html</a> </body>
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