Reinventing the wheel ... as a service

In software engineering it happens very frequently that good, or even not so good, ideas are periodically reinvented, possibly rebranding them with new and cool-sounding buzzwords. These trends follow a few recurring patterns. Sometimes we try to simplify core concepts up to a point where oversimplification leads to something impractical to use in real-world situations. Even more often our architectural choices, like in the cases of centralized vs. distributed or fat vs. thin clients, keep swinging like a pendulum between 2 positions. Finally other times we explore different solutions but at the end of this cycle we find ourselves at the starting point or very close to it. During this presentation, mostly delivered as a rant of a 50 years old engineer who for some reasons insists on writing software on a daily basis, we will go through and try to make sense of these trends.

Transcript

1. Reinventing the wheel … as a service Recurring trends in software development and architecture by Mario Fusco @mariofusco
2. Disclaimer: this talk is NOT about methodologies
3. Disclaimer: this talk is NOT about methodologies I have ethical principles …
4. Disclaimer: this talk is NOT about methodologies I have ethical principles … therefore I don’t shoot on the red cross
5. Early 2000s
6. Hierarchical DB vs. Relational
7. Hierarchical DB -> Tamino
8. Recurring trends
9. Unnecessary complexity
10. Straightforward simplicity
11. Straightforward simplicity
12. Simplify ... beyond the reasonable
13. The Markup Language War
14. The Markup Language War
15. The Norway Problem Shortcuts are great Except when they break horribly
17. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci
18. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci Oversimplification is the ultimate idiocy. - me
19. A static typing system makes everything more complex isn’t it?
20. A static typing system makes everything more complex isn’t it? Dynamic Typing
21. Dynamic Typing The best way to discover that a duck cannot bark ...
22. Dynamic Typing The best way to discover that a duck cannot bark ... ... in production ...
23. Dynamic Typing The best way to discover that a duck cannot bark ... ... in production ... ... on a Friday evening
24. Fallacies of distributed computing • The network is reliable • Latency is zero • Bandwidth is infinite • The network is secure • Topology doesn't change • There is one administrator • Transport cost is zero • The network is homogeneous
25. The nocode / lowcode myth
26. The nocode / lowcode myth
27. Intelligent systems
28. Intelligent systems Changing random stuff until your program works is “hacky” and “bad coding practice”.
29. Intelligent systems Changing random stuff until your program works is “hacky” and “bad coding practice”. But if you do it fast enough it is “Machine Learning” and pays 4x your current salary.
30. Machine Learning ML is the thing suggesting to buy laundry detergent together with your new washing machine because they're statistically related ...
31. Machine Learning ML is the thing suggesting to buy laundry detergent together with your new washing machine because they're statistically related ... … or more often the one thinking that, since you want to buy a washing machine, you decided to start up a whole new laundry.
32. Why not Machine Learning + Symbolic Reasoning ? + ML to find statistical correlations and discover new patterns SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view
33. Why not Machine Learning + Symbolic Reasoning ? + ML to find statistical correlations and discover new patterns SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view ML AI SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view
34. Why not Machine Learning + Symbolic Reasoning ? + ML to find statistical correlations and discover new patterns SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view ML AI SR to filter away the ones not making sense under a business point of view Your business domain knowledge lives here!
35. Often the right questions is not “should I use the old way or the new one?” ... … but “how can you combine the two and take the best of both?”
36. Pendulum of innovation • Fat vs.Thin clients terminals • Centralized vs. Distributed systems • Outsourcing vs. Insourcing
37. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe
38. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe Desktop Innovation
39. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe Desktop Server side webapps Innovation Innovation
40. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe Desktop Server side webapps Applets Innovation Innovation Innovation
41. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe Desktop Server side webapps Applets Server side HTML rendering Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
42. Pendulum of innovation Mainframe Desktop Server side webapps Applets Server side HTML rendering Microfrontends Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
43. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation
44. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation Green threads
45. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation Green threads Native threads
46. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation Green threads Native threads Events ( actors / message passing )
47. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation Green threads Native threads Events ( actors / message passing ) Reactive programming
48. Concurrent Programming in Java Spiral of innovation Green threads Native threads Events ( actors / message passing ) Reactive programming Virtual threads (Project Loom)
49. Rebranding
50. Cloud Cloud Computing is Mainframe Architecture which used virtualization in the 70s
54. Remote calls / inter process communication • RPC • Corba • SOAP • REST • gRPC
55. Modularization • Code – Package – OSGi – JPMS • Architecture – distributed computing – SOA – microservices
56. Software Engineering / Architecture “innovation” patterns • (Over)Simplification
57. Software Engineering / Architecture “innovation” patterns • (Over)Simplification • Recurring trends – Pendulum – Spiral
58. Software Engineering / Architecture “innovation” patterns • (Over)Simplification • Recurring trends – Pendulum – Spiral • Rebranding
59. … and what you can do about it • Beware of stretched narratives and analogies
60. … and what you can do about it • Beware of stretched narratives and analogies • Beware of NIH syndrome
61. … and what you can do about it • Beware of stretched narratives and analogies • Beware of NIH syndrome • Think with your head
62. … and what you can do about it • Beware of stretched narratives and analogies • Beware of NIH syndrome • Think with your head • Ask yourself: where have I seen this before?
63. Mario Fusco @mariofusco