Mixed Signals

https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/

> As a software developer, I envy writers, musicians, and filmmakers. Unlike software, when they create something, it is really done — forever. A recorded album can be just the same 20 years later, but software has to change.

It may be difficult to square the claim of a written work being "done forever" with the twelve editions that "Principles of Geology" went through, the last of which being posthumous. Charles Lyell was certainly not done with that work.

That a particular recorded album can be the same ignores musicians who endlessly vary their tunes. Some musicians even scoff at recordings, as those are not live and lack the magic of the moment. When is a square dance caller done forever?

Sure, a lot of written work does not vary, much. However, the works of Roald Dahl were recently in the news, on account of some changes. Or is Chaucer even readable? Or how about the footnotes in Don Quixote that explain the Spanish to the Spanish? Worse, some modern listeners may cleave to a particular recording to the point of not liking the actually random lyrics of a live production. Overtrained, much? Film is probably the strongest claim of "and it's done", on account of the expense of, say, Kurosawa burning down a castle, though remakes are not unknown. There have been a few Draculas over the years.

On the software side, one can find software that does not change. Tests, boilerplate, and various algorithms come to mind. This is some amount of code. A fair amount, probably, if one looks at how many lines remain static over time. Maybe the software world would be in a better state if there was less churn and more tests, documentation, and correction of errors. More time for more people to look at the changes, and to consider them. Maybe the software doesn't have to change.

(As a unix sysadmin, I'm in favor of less change to production systems, as change tends to cause issues and issues tend to cause loss of sleep and stress. Programmers doubtless feel differently about the ideal rate of change in production. Perhaps game theory could come up with an optimal rate of change that is neither too frequent nor too rare?)

Objects In Space

Where did the notion that things are "really done" come from? This is probably due to storefronts that present row upon row of static objects. Clearly those objects have been completed, therefore the creator must be done with that work. There was a story of Yo-Yo Ma asking a musician to play the same thing again, and they played it differently. Why differently? The second time there was a cloud across the sun, or a shadow was different, so naturally the music had to be varied. How much of this does a MP3 file lack? Strict adherence to a musical score is a fairly recent thing; one was expected to improvise back in the day. There was a scene in Star Trek Voyager where a "Jazz Impromptu" is played, from sheet music. What jazz is really done — forever?

Software, by contrast, can be "done, forever". What is there that needs to be changed when the proof is complete?