Reply to post: Is there an inverse law for software?

Is there an inverse law for software?

The inverse law being, that as the power of processors increase, the optimisation of software decreases?

Anecdotally, it would certainly seem so.

I recall the absolute wonders that creative coders would apply with so little processing power and memory on a ZX Spectrum, back in the 80's.

Entire games with fairly complex graphics for that era, squeezed into 8k of RAM, optimised to an incredibly efficient point, using machine code.

That dedication is incredible, as machine code is ... very very difficult for humans.

Now we are seeing games of a similar complexity - little indie platform type games, that are consuming 100x the storage and processing power.

Sure, things are far more complicated than this comparison. A lot of those games are created on the back of game engines and I'd argue it is probably an order of magnitude easier now, to create the same level of graphical detail and logic complexity, than it was 40 years ago.

But the end result of that, is software that requires more raw processing power.

This is a simplistic completely anecdotal point I'm making, but I'm confident the argument holds.

When software developers are spoiled with more raw processing power, they often optimise less - and sometimes, the tools in the software toolchain aren't optimising, that developers rely on.

This is why I love projects like the "1k programming challenge", as they stretch the imagination of coders to find the most optimal way to run code.

Sure, the size of an application doesn't equate to how much processing power it uses - you can create a program of just a few bytes, that'll melt a CPu.

But it does encourage optimisation - and ultimately, optimisation can result in using less processing power.

I'll get my coat...