undefined | Better HN

0 pointspmoriarty3y ago0 comments

"software doesn't break down from heat. An app I write today will run until the hardware dies. I have a palm_os app I wrote in 1998 that still runs perfectly."

In an organization of any appreciable size, things change all the time.. and I'm not just talking about code (for which you could have a code freeze in an emergency situation like this), but the external systems you're connected to could change for reasons completely out of your control. Content changes can break stuff because of bugs in your code. Legacy systems could require all sorts of ongoing tweaking and maintenance. And, yes, heat can break your software if the server it's running on overheats.

Twitter is not a palm_os app.

0 comments

john_the_writer3y ago

Agreed.. but lets say you fire 99% of your engineers, and declare a code freeze (because there's no-one left to write code)..

Then in theory.. if you own the hardware and you've locked down the libraries... That code could keep running for a long time. Agreed it's not a Palm app, but with everything locked down, I'd argue it's safe

But now I can third party stuff changing. Payment processors and such. Those don't happen fast though, and 100% not so fast that a company the size of twitter can't work out a sunsetting.

To the heat can break software if the server it's running on overheats. I have a feeling twitter's has a system in place to scale out the faulty server.

My point was, comparing code to a car is silly. A car needs maintenance. Code in code freeze does not.

john_the_writer3y ago

One final thought.. Twitter isn't of any appreciable size anymore. :)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointspmoriarty3y ago0 comments

"software doesn't break down from heat. An app I write today will run until the hardware dies. I have a palm_os app I wrote in 1998 that still runs perfectly."

Twitter is not a palm_os app.

0 comments

john_the_writer3y ago

Agreed.. but lets say you fire 99% of your engineers, and declare a code freeze (because there's no-one left to write code)..

But now I can third party stuff changing. Payment processors and such. Those don't happen fast though, and 100% not so fast that a company the size of twitter can't work out a sunsetting.

To the heat can break software if the server it's running on overheats. I have a feeling twitter's has a system in place to scale out the faulty server.

My point was, comparing code to a car is silly. A car needs maintenance. Code in code freeze does not.

john_the_writer3y ago

One final thought.. Twitter isn't of any appreciable size anymore. :)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse