The illusion of simplicity and low cost in data design and computing

[Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>]

Yesterday Michael Kay wrote:

A common phenomenon in the history of computing: simplicity and low cost wins over technical sophistication. Something which is now causing the industry huge costs because the popular operating systems are so insecure.

In his book, "The Art of Unix Programming" Eric Raymond writes:

Many operating systems touted as more "modern" or "user friendly" than Unix achieve their surface glossiness by locking users and developers into one interface policy, and offer an application-programming interface (API) that for all its elaborateness is rather narrow and rigid. On such systems, tasks the designers have anticipated are very easy--but tasks they have not anticipated are often impossible or at best extremely painful.

Really interesting! 

Both quotes suggest that buying into what appears to be a simple, low cost solution may ultimately end up costing more and require complex extensions.

The XML stack of technologies is pretty hefty, which turns off some people. However, as the quotes from Michael and Eric suggest, the simplicity and low cost of some other data technology may turn out to be an illusion.

Comments?

/Roger