From: dmcclory@Chaos.mcs.kent.edu (Daniel McClory)
Subject: Re: Costs per line of code
Summary: Robotic programming 
Organization: Kent State University
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 17:50:42 GMT

Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: Kent State University
Keywords: 

In article <1ar2bgINNph0@uwm.edu> markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark) writes:
>Tony Wingo writes:
>>"If one worker can dig a posthole in five minutes, how long would it take
>>ten workers to dig the same posthole?"
>
>sjr@afterlife.ncsc.mil (Stephen J. Roznowski) replies:
>< I prefer to think of the original question as follows:
>< If a worker digs an average of 12 postholes an hour earning $10.00 per
>< hour, approximately how much will it cost me to dig 120 postholes with
>< 10 workers? [and to really get back to the intent of the original question
>< how much are those postholes worth?]
>
>In article <ld1ddmINNo95@news.bbn.com> pplacewa@bbn.com (Paul Placeway) writes:
>>... the question is more like "If a worker digs an average of 100
>>shovelfulls of dirt in an hour earning $10.00 per hour, how long will
>>it take 10 workers to dig 1 posthole?  How long if they are digging in
>>clay?  How long if digging in granite?"
>
>If I write an expert system that can generate programs from voice specification
>how much do I charge for the software I tell it to develop?
>
>Or to carry the analogy with digging pot holes through: if I create a new
>brand of robots with the ability to dig holes an inhumanly fast speeds, and
>with the ability to self-replicate using nothing but the energy of the sun,
>the chemical compounds in the air and ground to fuel its work and replication,
>how much do I charge for making my robot species dig 1,000,000 holes while I
>kick back and enjoy my leisure in the tropics?

If you think that coming up with the "voice specification" for a program will
be a matter of kicking back at your leisure, you haven't written many 
specifications.  A good specification is basically a program, without all
the messy implementation details included, like how to get a character to show
up on a screen.  This means that writing a specifiction requires you to answer
lots of difficult questions, like "what is it that the user wants?"

If you did indeed come across a bit of software which would allow "voice
specification", I don't think it would lower your programming costs more
than a small fraction, if at all.  Automatic programming is mostly myth.

If, theoretically, you could come up with some form of automatic programmer
that would reduce programming to something any K-mart checkout clerk
could do, then you could charge a fortune for the automatic programmer, but
software would be priced like candy bars - "Don't want to bother telling your
PC how to do accounting?  Give us 50 cents and we'll do it for you." 
The price for software is driven by the make vs. buy problem, and in this
case, since making it would be so easy, buying it would have to be really
cheap.

But, as previous posters have pointed out, software production is not so
easy as digging post holes, and specifying programs is not as easy as
giving directions to the corner market, so I doubt my job is threatened
any time soon.

-- 
          Daniel McClory               
	  Kent State University