I'm going through complexity shock again. That seems to be a theme that recurs ever more frequently these days. Time was, I could spend maybe a month out of the year studying the latest technology and deciding which bits were worth mastering. Then I'd just go and master them. Now it seems I keep studying more and mastering less with each passing month.
At the moment, I have two computers more or less running Windows95. The "more" part is that the OS definitely occupies more disk real estate, and eats more compute cycles. The "less" part is that fewer things work right than when I was just fooling around with that old-fashioned Windows 3.1 I've used for years. Yes, I've read all those "100 Tips" articles. And yes, I've tapped my (scant) sources at Microsoft for some critical hand holding. But no, I can't say I've made much progress.
All those wizards keep getting in my way. When they guess right, they perform minor miracles for the uninformed, I suppose. But when they don't, they really mess up. Then they leave mysterious wreckage lying about that usually forces me to reinstall everything yet again. At the best of times, they introduce enough rock wool between me and what's really going on to insulate a New England colonial farm house. Just tell me what the parameters are and how I can set them, please. Don't protect me from knowing what's going on.
A scant ten years ago, I knew every byte of code in the computers I used. If I hadn't written it myself, people in my company did, writing in a style and to specifications over which I had some semblance of control. Now I am reduced to working in tiny pockets that I have carved out of the hektomegabytes of software I can't avoid using. I am not yet a happy camper in this brave new world.
I know that things will eventually get better. I'll work out the usual minimal subset of functionality I need - which will probably exercise about two per cent of all those bytes squatting on the hard drive. Right now I'm particularly grumpy. For the first time in my career, I've had to rent a machine for a few months, just to avoid installing a nontrivial OS on one of my own. I broke down last week and engaged the services of a network consultant, rather than learn a chunk of technology that I need more than I care to learn about. And I finally gave up and ordered some new computers with Windows95 preinstalled. Hardly the behavior of a nominal computer expert.
Well, at least I still know a thing or two about C and C++. But now there's this new language called Java...
P.J. Plauger
Senior Editor