Re: Is Systems Software Research Irrelevant

[Sundar Narasimhan <address@hidden>]

   I don't think "the Web", per se, is a component architecture at all. 
    HTML screen-scrapers
   don't count.

Dan: Are you aware of
     http://internet.conveyor.com/RESTwiki/moin.cgi/FrontPage 
and Roy Fielding's thesis? There's been an interesting debate (alas,
one I have not had time to track) postulating that thin and
generic is good ("thin vs. fat" refers to component interfaces)
and how the Web succeeds precisely because it's got the "right"
component architecture.

   Unix streams, with their total lack of both syntax and semantics, do not 
   strike me as a
   component architecture to be proud of.  Yes, you can do cute hacks with 
   pipes and so
   on, but that's not what I mean when I say "component architecture".

Agreed here. People get all tangled up fascinated by data flow -- they
haven't yet gotten tired of typing 2>&1 to see a jar listing :)