Software Pendula

I have high hopes for this blog. It was a new year’s resolution to become a more active blogger than my previous attempt as can be seen at elroyparkinson.blogspot.com. I still plan to keep that going for non-software related blogs if the urge strikes me once a year or so as has been the case historically.

Software Pendula will however focus exclusively on software development and architecture and I plan to blog at least once every couple of months here. “Pendula”, by the way is the plural of “pendulum” and yes, it is less common than “pendulums”, but I like the sound of it more so I will use it.

Why “Software Pendula”? Because it occurred to me a long time ago that trends in Software development have a lot in common with Hegel’s theory of historical development and follow the same three laws:

  1. Each historical phase follows a necessary course and that it could not have been arrived at through any other sequence of events.
  2. Each subsequent phase is not just a change but also represents progress.
  3. Each historical phase (thesis) tends to be replaced by the opposite (antithesis) followed by a phase of settling in the middle ground (synthesis) between the two extremes.

This is Hegel’s Pendulum theory.

The history of software development spans a far shorter period than the recorded history Hegel had to work with in the late 18th/early 19th century, but already there are many examples of “Software Pendula” to be seen:

  1. Static vs. dynamic languages.
  2. JavaScript vs. view components created in pick your favourite language.
  3. Externalising configuration in XML vs. internalising it with annotations.
  4. Many, many more…

So what will this blog be about? Well, not software pendula as such. I will review and discuss specific technologies, languages, frameworks and architectural patterns and styles that strike my fancy and in the process of trying to learn new stuff, I will record my experiences and conclusions here. And in the process, every so often I just might just notice a swing of the pendulum in progress and I’ll point at it and giggle just a little.

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