decompilation as archiving?

[Jerome H. Fine]

 >Tony Duell wrote:

>>On Dec 1, 2006, at 12:26 PM, Richard wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Someone asked me in private email why I'd want to do this -- I
>>>consider the source code just as an important historical artifact as
>>>the compiled binaries and physical hardware.  For the same reason that
>>>people want schematics for vintage hardware, having source code for
>>>vintage software is also useful.
>>>      
>>>
>>   Not only useful, but highly educational.  A lot of this sort of  
>>    
>>
>
>I would argue software sources are more educational than useful (not that 
>education is not a very important 'use' :-)). I like scheamtics of old 
>computers for 2 reasons, firstly to learn how they worked, and secondly 
>to be able to repair them if something failes. Only the first is really 
>applicable to software, software doesn't fail in the same sense that 
>hardware can.
>
Jerome Fine replies:

Actually, I disagree, particularly in regard to design bugs.

At one point, I found some code in RT-11 which does not work
correctly (specifically in the SL: under mapped monitors).
When I attempted to fix the problem, it became apparent that
it was a design flaw, not a program error.  That led me to
check the associated code in the monitor which led me to
notice another bug, this one due to a programming error.

In both cases, the bugs have been in the code for more than
two decades and have probably never been specifically seen as the
cause of any crashes - or at least that is what I suspect.

If the bug in the monitor ever actually occurred in a running
system and caused the system to crash (or something even
worse), it would be almost impossible to duplicate and find.

So software can also fail in ways that are similar to hardware
problems - EXCEPT that software will NEVER develop an entirely
new bug called a failure due to age problems whereas hardware
will always eventually reach this stage if used long enough.
If this latter characteristic is what you refer to as the prime
difference between hardware and software, then I agree 100%!!!

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
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