From David Bailey
The article about software bloat by Nicholas Negroponte started out so well (5 June, p 26). Of course modern software is slow and glitchy because of “featuritis”. The same is true of other electronic goods. I recently purchased a digital radio only to discover that I have to press no fewer than four buttons just to change from one preset channel to another.
If only Negroponte had stopped there and not gone on to suggest that software should have “common sense” and an ability to “do what I mean”. I suspect that the software required to even attempt this feat would be bloated and contain glitches of its own.
I don’t want an editor, say, to second-guess what I mean. If the software does not behave predictably, I cannot think ahead but have to be constantly checking that it has done what I expected. If my editor “notices” that I always type my name after the word “sincerely”, for example, and then does this for me, I have to remember to watch out if I use that word in another context. In short, software with common sense would be hell.
Hyde, Cheshire, UK
