[Sheflug] Why is Software Fat?

[Richard Ibbotson <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

This is a bit late for submission but if you would like to go please 
go to this page and register...

http://sy.bcs.org/index.php?c=events&p=event&r=20131121

Consider the last 30 years. Computer hardware has improved at a 
monumental rate in that time. In fact the modern accomplishments in 
computing can be mainly explained by how well computer hardware has 
developed since 1969 and the US space programme that gave birth to 
VLSI.  Computer software has had many great milestones along the way.
The early versions of assembler and how they were able to use a tiny 
amount of computer hardware to create a complex computer. The beauty 
of Unix in the banking industry and the LAMP architecture it spawned 
to allow the internet to exist. Windows 3.1 and the introduction of a 
GUI that worked to mainstream society. The invention of email was 
truly of global historic importance when we look back at it.

The world of software has become more fractured, more complex and less 
easy to implement.  Computer science has become an abject failure in 
terms of software development and design.

The problems are serious and multiplying each year. The internet now 
has a software industry that is based upon no software design 
methodology. Most web developers follow no design approach and hence 
the internet is mushrooming the amount of rubbish that is being 
presented. Software is not an engineering concept and the academic 
teaching community is quite simply not competent to teach the 
discipline. There are exceptions to the rule. Gaming is one area where 
a purist approach remain. Financial services is a good example of vast 
resources being spent to produce rubbish.

This talk is supposed to be controvertial as it is meant to wake us up 
from the complacency of accepting bad software in our lives.

 
Speaker:	
Dr Rukhsar Shafiq MBCS, Professor in Strategic Studies,

-- 
Richard

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