Finally got around to reading Worse is Better by D. Gabriel. I must admit, I feel I'm more of a "right thing" kind of guy, but I can see what Gabriel's point is. It seems to be a variation on "the perfect is the enemy of the good" (Voltaire, me thinks). I specially liked the idea that trying to design a system that has all the correct interface leads to a system that rarely sees the light of day. The implementation is just a nightmare for these 100% perfect interface systems.
I've know for a while now that the kind of compromises that this paper brings to light are hard for me to swallow. Probably the reason why I think I'd much rather do science than engineering. Darn, I want simplest and complete interface, AND simplest and efficient implementation.
On thought that came to my mind as I read the paper was: is Haskell trying to be the "right thing"? What do you think?
