The fundamental problem with program maintenance is that fixing a defect has a substantial chance of introducing another.
Interpretation
Program maintenance is challenging because fixing one problem can lead to new issues.
This quote by Fred Brooks highlights the inherent difficulties in software maintenance, where attempts to resolve existing defects may inadvertently create new ones. It underscores the complexity of systems where changes can have unforeseen consequences, emphasizing the need for cautious and well-considered approaches in programming and software development.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing software updates, I could use this quote to emphasize the risks of changes.
The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
Proprietary software is an injustice.
China may censor YouTube. China may censor Twitter. They won't be able to censor Bitcoin. There's no central authority. There's no one you can go to and say, 'We're going to turn Bitcoin off.'
In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration".
Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge.
Today many people are switching to free software for purely practical reasons. That is good, as far as it goes, but that isn't all we need to do! Attracting users to free software is not the whole job, just the first step.
Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment - money we could save by investing in energy efficiency.
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