Re: work times & accommodation @tokyo, WAS: Re: [tlug] Embedded linux dev wanting to find work in Tokyo.. Seeking advice.

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:42:17 +0900
Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com> wrote:

> What you don't seem to realize is, they might just be f*cked. "Just
> double the size of the developement team and we'll get more done" is
> the standard managerial response for people who don't understand why
> software development is different from engineering or manufacturing.
> The industry, or at least some in it, have known this for a long time.

Can you explain why you think that software development is different
from engineering/manufacturing and why do you think that similar
managment principles do not apply?

I also somewhat read a "software development is more difficult
than engineering/manufacturing" between the lines. But i must say,
having done a fair share of software development myself (though
never in teams larger than 4 people in the comercial world, but
more than enough in the OSS world), i think that designing electronics
is by far more difficult than software development. Although
software can easily grow to the equivalent complexity (measured
in parts or LOC respectively) of a building full of electronics,
software alows to split the problem in really tiny pieces that
can be solved one at a time with only little knowledge about
the overall system. In electronics it's often impossible
to go below a certain problem size due to restrictions in
size, power consumption, or mere availability of devices/parts,
and you always have to keep most of the overall design in your
mind to successfully build anything (because everything is connected,
and be it just the power lines, you have unwanted interactions all over
the place). Otherwise you'll end up with something that works part
by part, but doesn't when put together.

Not to talk about that an "if" statement always works how
it is supposed to, but in electronics nothing is ideal.
A diode has not only a voltage drop across it, but it also
depends on the current going trough the diode. Or an operation
amplifier being just a little bit too slow and thus causing
a delay of 12us, which in turn causes a control loop to oscillate
under certain circumstances.

			Attila Kinali
-- 
The true CS students do not need to know how to program.
They learn how to abstract the process of programming to
the point of making programmers obsolete.
		-- Jabber in #holo