I recall reading a hyperbolic, cautionary quote quite some time ago that expressed something along the lines of "all complex software products are destined to eventually become reimplementations of the X window system".<p>Does anyone else have any recollection of this, or even better, know where it comes from?
> I recall reading a parabolic quote ...<p>ITYM a <i>hyperbolic</i> quote. A parabolic quote would describe an arc like a thrown ball, which eventually falls back to earth. A hyperbolic quote would escape toward infinity, which is the intended sense of the expression derived from the shapes of conic sections.
I can find a lot about Zawinski's law, or Greenspun's tenth law.<p>Letts' Law: All programs evolve until they can send email.<p>Zawinski's Law: Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.<p>Greenspun's tenth law: Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.<p>RTM provided a "corollary which clarifies the set of "sufficiently complicated" programs to which the rule applies: …including Common Lisp." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule</a>
"If the designers of X Windows built cars, there would be no fewer than five steering wheels hidden about the cockpit, none of which followed the same principles . . . but you'd be able to shift gears with your stereo.<p>Useful feature, that." -- Marcus J. Ranum, Digital Equipment Corp.