Nate Cull (.social)Jun 2, 2022

The Progress of Software Engineering, 1989-2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Distributed_Objects

<< Portable Distributed Objects (PDO) is an application programming interface (API) for creating object-oriented code that can be executed remotely on a network of computers.. created by NeXT Computer, Inc. using their OpenStep system >>

<< The ability to instantiate any object known to the local process from any other process is a known security vulnerability, and Apple strongly discourages use of PDO for that reason. >>

Portable Distributed Objects - Wikipedia

Show threadNate Cull (.social)Jun 2, 2022
The ability to instantiate any Concept known to a human mind inside any other human mind by means of Speech is a known security vulnerability, and the United Network Command Office for Operational Logistics strongly discourages use of Speech for that reason.
Show threadNate Cull (.social)Jun 2, 2022

The thing that annoys me about the failure of distributed objects as a programming paradigm is that,

in the 1990s, you could not go anywhere in computing without being utterly hammered by the message that Objects and especially Distributed Objects were The Future Here Now, this was it, Programming was Solved Forever, if you didn't Get It you were just Wrong

and we just sorta slid from there into "actually distributed objects are terrible never use them"

but never acknowledging that change.

Show threadLisPiJun 2, 2022

@natecull There's a difference between hype by dotcom startups and actually implementing something well though.

Windows' commercial success despite being *very* average in terms of capacity is an example of sorts.

Distributed systems are difficult to do, and even more so when you have *no* trust boundaries. But admitting such problems isn't the can-do "move fast, ignore problem and crash hard" way of startups.

Show threadNate Cull (.social)

@lispi314

The whole startup culture and its weird relationship with giant corporates is quite fascinating, and so much like the "Megacorps and Netrunners" relationship in 1980s Cyberpunk fiction.

I never really thought it would come to this, but it's exactly how it's played out.

The megacorps need stability and reputation because of their vast size, but they also want illegally risky innovation, so they hire it out to low-life goon squads who break all the laws and can be plausibly denied.

Jun 2, 2022 at 3:20amWeb
Show threadLisPiJun 2, 2022
@natecull That's an unpleasantly suitable comparison.