Software Gestation Periods

Posted by Tim Patrick on June 23, 2007

It’s just after lunchtime and I’m still installing Visual Studio 9.0 Beta 1 (codename “Orcas”). I started around 9:00am this morning by putting Windows XP Pro SP2 on a Microsoft Virtual PC drive. Virtual PC is a cool program, with its computer-in-a-computer abilities. In the real world, it would be like having a double-scoop ice cream cone in the middle of your steak and potatoes dinner.

But today I’m not feeling like ice cream or steak; it’s more like brussel sprouts and kale. This software is just taking way too long to install. Why is that? Isn’t it simply copying files and updating registry settings?

This week I had the opportunity to archive some of my old customer projects. I was amazed at how little CD space it took to save them. One of the projects was originally a VB 3.0 application, and the setup files would still fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk–with room to spare. Compare that to the Visual Studio Beta 1 download. When I tried to copy the ISO image to a DVD, it said the DVD was too small. The 4.7-gigabyte DVD was too small! No wonder it takes so long to install.

So I’ve decided to stop calling setup programs “installs.” Instead I will refer to them as software gestation periods. Humans spend about 9 months in the womb; for elephants it’s nearly 2 years. If we design our programs right, we might be able to bring the installations down to this level. But until we do, I’m stocking up on cigars and baby blankets.

This article was posted on June 23, 2007 by Tim Patrick.
Categories: Software. Tags: . This post has 3 comments.

3 Responses to “Software Gestation Periods”

  1. Joey, on June 23rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm Said:

    …with its computer-in-a-computer abilities…it would be like having a double-scoop ice cream cone in the middle of your steak and potatoes dinner.

    A computer in a computer sounded pretty exciting until I contemplated ice cream in my steak and potatoes. Now that I think about it, I suppose that was your point — seems exciting, but uhm, not so much.

    tried to copy the ISO image to a DVD, it said the DVD was too small.

    I did that very thing yesterday! ugh. Backing up a DVD movie and got the same error. Time to invest in some double-density DVD’s it looks like…

    Instead I will refer to them as “software gestation periods”.

    Hehehe. You’re such a nerd. You always have been.
    and yes, it’s a compliment. :)

  2. Iesu no deshi, on June 23rd, 2007 at 2:22 pm Said:

    Gestational Software…sounds laxitive to me. Stocking up on cigars and baby blankets? The smell of a smoldering baby blanket can’t be good? burning baby barf or downey fluff fired, I can’t imagine tring to market those flavors of cigars. I tried to make and IDVD on my mac and I spent 3 hours of recording and I produce a 3 minute dvd of almost nothing of 2 hours of material I intended to record. That was a frustrating exercise in futility. You know software engineers spend years developing programs and then spend the rest of thier life defending it and rewriting it. I would be afraid to find that God has other worlds out there of botched creation projects that just didn’t go well. I’ll let your mind run with that since you have a propensity to enjoy Larson’s “Far Side” cartoons.

  3. btds, on July 3rd, 2007 at 3:26 am Said:

    Next time I complain about how big and bloated Java has become, I’ll just reflect on this posting.

    The NetBeans IDE — which includes the Java SDK — is 139.69 MB.

    Oh, and it’s free, portable, and (will soon be) open source.

    Tim… join the light side of the force… ;-) .

Leave a Reply

«
»