A Plea for Lean Software An Essay by Niklaus Wirth cr.yp.to Software's girth has surpassed its functionality, largely because hardware advances make this possible. The way to streamline software lies in disciplined methodologies and a return to the essentials. Measured by the number of its featuresEssential vs. nice to haveDependence is more profitable than educationThe most rewarding iterationsNever enough time A grossly obese set of requirementsFeatures and complexity softwareperformancefunction
Self-publishing, self-exemplifying I sought to design [my first book] so as to make it self-exemplifying – that is, the physical object itself would reflect the intellectual principles advanced in the book. Publishers seemed appalled at the prospect that an author might govern design. Consequently I decided to self-publish the book. ...[Howard Gralla and I] spent the summer in his studio laying out the book, page by page. We integrated graphics into the text, sometimes in the middle of sentences, eliminating the usual segregation of text and image – one of the ideas Visual Display advocated. My view on self-publishing was to go all out, to make the best and most elegant and wonderful book possible, without compromise. Otherwise, why do it? The next 4 books were financed by the previous books. I have never written a grant application. Edward Tufte, Seeing With Fresh Eyes To enact visually the message craft