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Not sure if I should ask it here but I'll just go ahead. I was reading SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs). And there was one quote from Alan Perlis in the preface to the second edition.

Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?

First, I can't understand at all what he tries to say here, despite the sentence being totally grammatically-correct. Second, I would like to know how does this sentence fit into the context of SICP?(e.g., how might one get additional insight from understanding this sentence, in line with SICP?)

Thanks in advance!

Guy Coder
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xji
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    of course it would help to find the context, but it refers to the ultimately transient nature of most software, it is somewhat rare for software to persist in the same form, it is in motion, "developing", shifting. a soap bubble is fragile and can pop easily, it has a temporary lifetime. it is quite frequent for software to be "discarded" in corps.... however, another key aspect is upgrades in the system, maybe he was referring to that? in this way software is somewhat like the human body that is composed of trillions of cells constantly replaced such that every ~3.5yrs, all cells are new. – vzn Dec 21 '13 at 23:58

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