Coder()

Been awhile… and on the spawning of real Software Component Factories

I have website, high-end home audio show reporting, and listening-late-at-night duties at Audio Federation, in additon to my regular day job, so have been busy…

The more I think about it though, the more I think that we are still in the ‘pre-Ford Factory’ days, when comparing the software industry to the auto industry, when everything built was a custom piece.

Not an original idea, no.

But the answer does not lie in more (or fewer!) and better component architectures, IMHO, or at least not entirely.

I think targetting that layer for reusability is targetting a very low level of abstraction - that it annalogous to the ‘foundry’ level, as opposed to the ‘factory shelf of parts’ level.

I think it is the UI that needs to embody the concppt of ‘reusable components ‘ - and this is NOT referring to the construction of the UI - but its ‘look and feel’.

Nobody in the factory cares about which molecules are in one 1/4″ screw versus another . They care that they can use their hands, or screwdriver, and put either screw to work in a similar way.

It is at the human/part interface that something useful occurs in the auto factory.

We in software are so focused on the screw thread level (it would be nice to be able to bump up to headlights and bumpers, huh?) , that we do not notice that there is another point of view. A higher level of abstraction - but one that works more intimately with the person (factory) who actually wants to do something (build something).

Maybe it comes down to this:

We have been saying ‘build the parts (specifications) and the factory will come’

But it should be ‘build the factory and the parts will come’.