-*- mode: outline; coding: utf-8 -*-

* General discussion.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_development_philosophies

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws

* Principle of good enough (POGE).

It favours quick-and-simple (but potentially extensible) designs over

elaborate systems designed by committees.

Once the quick-and-simple design is deployed, it can then evolve as needed,

driven by user requirements.

This kind of design is not appropriate in systems where it is not possible to

evolve the system over time, or where the full functionality is required from

the start.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_good_enough

* No Silver Bullet.

There is no single development, in either technology or management technique,

which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement within a

decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet

* Rule of thumb.

A rule of thumb is a principle that postulate in some case use simple

procedure wich produce approximate result instead use complex but exact

produce.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb

* The Zero One or Infinity.

The Zero One or Infinity (ZOI) rule is a rule of thumb in software design. It

suggests that arbitrary limits on the number of instances of a particular

entity should not be allowed. Specifically, that an entity should either be

forbidden entirely, one should be allowed, or any number (presumably, to the

limit of available storage) of them should be allowed. It should not be the

software that puts a hard limit on the number of instances of the entity.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_One_Infinity

* 80-20 rule (pareto principle).

This rule postulate that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the

causes.

This rule applied to optimisation (most time spent by program only by little

piece of code), functionality (80% of users use only 20% of program

functionality); bugs (fixing the top 20% of most reported bugs solve 80% of

the error and crashes).

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80:20_rule

* 1% rule.

The 1% rule states that the number of people who create content on the

internet represents approximately 1% (or less) of the people actually viewing

that content.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29

* Parkinson's Law.

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

* Ninety-ninety rule.

The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 10% of the development time.

The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development

time.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

* Wirth's law.

Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law

* Student syndrome.

Student syndrome refers to the phenomenon that many people will start to fully

apply themselves to a task just at the last possible moment before a deadline.

The student syndrome is a form of procrastination ().

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome

* Conway's Law.

...organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs

which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

Example: Consider a two-person team of software engineers, A and B. Say A

designs and codes a software class X. Later, the team discovers that class X

needs some new features. If A adds the features, A is likely to simply expand

X to include the new features. If B adds the new features, B may be afraid of

breaking X, and so instead will create a new derived class X2 that inherits

X's features, and puts the new features in X2. So the final design is a

reflection of who implemented the functionality.

A real life example: NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter crashed because one team used

United States customary units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other

used metric units for a key spacecraft operation.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Law

* Brooks's law.

It takes some time for the people added to a project to become productive.

Communication overheads increase as the number of people increases.

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

See

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27_law

* Code bloat.

Code bloat is the production of code that is perceived as unnecessarily long,

slow, or otherwise wasteful of resources. Code bloat generally refers to

source code size but sometimes is used to refer to the generated code size or

even the binary file size.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_bloat

* Beerware.

Beerware is term for software released under a very relaxed license. It

provides the end user with the right to use a particular program.

Should the user of the product meet the author and consider the software

useful, he is encouraged to buy the author a beer 'in return' (or, in some

variations, drink a beer in the author's honor).

/* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 * "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):

 * <phk@FreeBSD.ORG> wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you

 * can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think

 * this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return Poul-Henning Kamp

 * ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 */

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beerware

* Demoware.

Demoware (also known as trialware) is commercial software released for free

(shareware) in a version which is limited in one or more ways.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoware

* Crippleware.

Crippleware is any product whose functions have been limited (or "crippled")

with the sole purpose of encouraging or requiring the user to pay for those

functions (either by paying a one-time fee or an on-going subscription fee).

Crippleware is also a term used to describe software that makes use of Digital

Rights Management.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crippleware

* Nagware.

Nagware (also known as begware, annoyware or a nagscreen) is a type of

shareware that reminds (or nags) the user to register it by paying a fee. It

usually does this by popping up a message when the user starts the program, or

intermittently while the user is using the application. These messages can

appear as windows obscuring part of the screen or message boxes that can

quickly be closed. Some nagware keeps the message up for a certain time

period, forcing the user to wait to continue to use the program.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagware

* Registerware.

Registerware refers to computer software which requires the user to give

personal information, e.g an email address, through registration in order to

download or use the program.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registerware

* Scareware.

Scareware comprises several classes of scam software, often with limited or no

benefit, sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scareware

* Donationware.

Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational software to

the user and pleads for an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a

third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may

also be stipulated by the author, or it may be left to the discretion of the

user, based on individual perceptions of the software's value. Since

donationware comes fully operational (i.e. not crippleware) and payment is

optional, it is a type of freeware.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donationware

* Freeware.

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an

optional fee.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware

* Shareware.

Shareware is proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on

a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality,

availability or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an

Internet website or as a compact disc included with a magazine.

The rationale behind shareware is to give buyers the opportunity to use the

program and judge its usefulness before purchasing a license for the full

version of the software.

The words "free trial" or "trial version" are indicative of shareware.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware

* Software bloat.

Software bloat is a term used to describe the tendency of newer computer

programs to have a larger installation footprint, or have many unnecessary

features that are not used by end users, or just generally use more system

resources than necessary, while offering little or no benefit to its users.

Comparison of Microsoft Windows minimum hardware requirements (for 32-bit

versions):

Windows version     Processor   Memory  Hard disk

Windows 95[4]        25 MHz      4 MB    ~50 MB

Windows 98[5]        66 MHz     16 MB   ~200 MB

Windows 2000[6]     133 MHz     32 MB    650 MB

Windows XP[7]       233 MHz     64 MB    1.5 GB

Windows Vista[8]    800 MHz    512 MB     15 GB

Windows 7[9]          1 GHz      1 GB     16 GB

Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which

cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

                                                   -- Jamie Zawinski

** Foistware.

Foistware, Bloatware, or Bundler is software bundled with completely unrelated

programs. That means that there is no particular property in the software that

makes it foistware, but rather the context in which it was installed.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foistware

** Bloatware.

Software bloat is a term used to describe the tendency of newer computer

programs to have a larger installation footprint, or have many unnecessary

features that are not used by end users, or just generally use more system

resources than necessary, while offering little or no benefit to its users.

Bloatware, or foistware, is also used to describe software that comes

pre-installed on a computer when it's bought, mostly consisting of

time-limited trials or feature-lacking basic or "beginner" versions.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloatware

** Shovelware.

Shovelware is sometimes used to denote foistware which was chosen to fill up

the remaining space on a freely distributed CD-ROM.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware

* Second-system effect.

In computing, the second-system effect or sometimes the second-system syndrome

refers to the tendency, when following on from a relatively small, elegant,

and successful system, to design the successor as an elephantine,

feature-laden monstrosity. The term was first used by Fred Brooks in his

classic The Mythical Man-Month.[1] It described the jump from a set of simple

operating systems on the IBM 700/7000 series to OS/360 on the 360 series.

* Inner-platform effect.

The inner-platform effect is the tendency of software architects to create a

system so customizable as to become a replica, and often a poor replica, of

the software development platform they are using.

XXX read more http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Inner-Platform_Effect.aspx

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner-platform_effect

* Feature creep.

Feature creep is the proliferation of features in a product such as computer

software. Extra features go beyond the basic function of the product and so

can result in baroque over-complication, or "featuritis", rather than simple,

elegant design.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_creep

* Bullet-point engineering.

Bullet-point engineering is a software design anti-pattern where developers

use the features of competing software packages as checklists of features to

implement in their own product. These features are often implemented poorly

and haphazardly, without any real design, merely so they can be added to a

bulleted list of features in marketing material. Bullet point engineering

often leads to feature creep and software bloat but may also simply result in

a poorly designed imitative product.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet-point_engineering

* KISS

Keep it simple and stupid, or keep it simple, stupid!

Instruction creep and function creep, two instances of creeping featuritis,

are examples of failure to follow the KISS principle in software development.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle

* Minimalism.

In computing, minimalism refers to the application of minimalist philosophies

and principles in hardware and software design and usage.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism_%28computing%29

* Unix philosophy.

** From Doug McIlroy.

"Do one thing and do it well."

"Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work

together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal

interface."

** From Pike: Notes on Programming in C.

 1. You cannot tell where a program is going to spend its time. Bottlenecks

occur in surprising places, so do not try to second guess and put in a speed

hack until you've proven that's where the bottleneck is.

 2. Measure. Do not tune for speed until your performance analysis tool tells

you which part of the code overwhelms the rest.

 3. Fancy algorithms tend to run more slowly on small data sets than simple

algorithms. They tend to have a large constant factor in O(n) analysis, and n

is usually small. So don't get fancy unless Rule 2 indicates that n is big

enough.

 4. Simplify your algorithms and data structures wherever it makes sense

because fancy algorithms are more difficult to implement without defects. The

data structures in most programs can be built from array lists, linked lists,

hash tables, and binary trees.

 5. Data dominates. If you have chosen the right data structures and organized

things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data

structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.

** From Mike Gancarz: The UNIX Philosophy.

 1. Small is beautiful.

 2. Make each program do one thing well.

 3. Build a prototype as soon as possible.

 4. Choose portability over efficiency.

 5. Store data in flat text files.

 6. Use software leverage to your advantage.

 7. Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.

 8. Avoid captive user interfaces.

 9. Make every program a filter.

With this not all agree:

 1. Allow the user to tailor the environment.

 2. Make operating system kernels small and lightweight.

 3. Use lowercase and keep it short.

 4. Save trees.

 5. Silence is golden.

 6. Think parallel.

 7. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

 8. Look for the 90-percent solution.

 9. Worse is better.

 10. Think hierarchically.

** Misc.

"Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity."

                              -– Dennis Ritchie

"Unix never says 'please'."

                              -– Rob Pike

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

* Worse is better.

In the "Worse is better" design style, simplicity of both the interface and

the implementation is more important than any other attribute of the system —

including correctness, consistency and completeness.

Simplicity

  The design must be simple, both in implementation and interface. It is

  more important for the implementation to be simpler than the interface.

  Simplicity is the most important consideration in a design.

Correctness

  The design must be correct in all observable aspects. It is slightly better

  to be simple than correct.

Consistency

  The design must not be overly inconsistent. Consistency can be sacrificed

  for simplicity in some cases, but it is better to drop those parts of the

  design that deal with less common circumstances than to introduce either

  implementational complexity or inconsistency.

Completeness

  The design must cover as many important situations as is practical. All

  reasonably expected cases should be covered. Completeness can be sacrificed

  in favor of any other quality. In fact, completeness must be sacrificed

  whenever implementation simplicity is jeopardized. Consistency can be

  sacrificed to achieve completeness if simplicity is retained; especially

  worthless is consistency of interface.

  http://dreamsongs.com/WIB.html

                Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big

* The right thing.

The MIT approach (known as "The right thing"):

Simplicity

  The design must be simple, both in implementation and interface. It is

  more important for the interface to be simpler than the implementation.

Correctness

  The design must be correct in all observable aspects. Incorrectness is

  simply not allowed.

Consistency

  The design must be consistent. A design is allowed to be slightly less

  simple and less complete to avoid inconsistency. Consistency is as important

  as correctness.

Completeness

  The design must cover as many important situations as is practical. All

  reasonably expected cases must be covered. Simplicity is not allowed to

  overly reduce completeness.

  http://dreamsongs.com/WIB.html

                Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big

* YAGNI.

"You aren't gonna need it" (or YAGNI for short) is the principle in extreme

programming that programmers should not add functionality until it is

necessary.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_ain%27t_gonna_need_it

* DRY (DIE).

Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) or Duplication is Evil (DIE).

 * VCS allow multiple and diverging copies ("branches").

 * Source code generation.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_repeat_yourself

* Do it yourself (DIY).

Do it yourself (or DIY) is a term used to describe building, modifying, or

repairing of something without the aid of experts or professionals.

when tasklist longer then people life mutch easy use already written libraries

then wrote own.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself

* Once and Only Once (OAOO).

* MoSCoW Method.

The capital letters in MoSCoW stand for:

 * M - MUST have this (included in the current delivery timebox in order

   for it to be a success).

 * S - SHOULD have this if at all possible (critical to the success of the

   project, but are not necessary for delivery in the current delivery

   timebox).

 * C - COULD have this if it does not affect anything else (nice to have).

 * W - WON'T have this time but WOULD like in the future.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_Method

* Abandonware.

Abandonware is a term used to describe computer software that is no longer

sold or supported, or whose copyright ownership may be unclear for various

reasons. While the term has been applied largely to older games, utility

software, etc.