Building a Cathedral | Hacker News Reader

Building a Cathedral

theprepared.org

73 pointsbookofjoe20 comments

See also: the brilliant illustrator David Macaulay's glorious "how-to" book.

https://www.amazon.com/Cathedral-Story-Construction-David-Ma...

As a longtime architecture nerd who's loved Gothic cathedrals ever since and before my parents read me Cathedral as a child, I just ordered myself a new hardback copy and it's sitting on my desk next to me. :)

This book is one of the childhood books that made me who I am today. I also had Pyramid and City.

Don't forget The Way Things Work!

I'm not sure of it's historical accuracy, or if the author took some liberties with the subject at hand, but one of my favorite works of fiction on the "building of a cathedral" is Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth". If you haven't read it, you may be as surprised by it as I was...

Wish there was less 'adult' content in it, I'd recommend it more widely. As it is, it's one of the few books I've thrown out, and I recommend David Macaulay's Cathedral instead. :/

So the key points of the essay -- cathedrals are accretions of effort over time, no cathedral is ever finished -- do they apply to software? And do they apply more to cathedral-structured projects than to bazaar-structured projects? I'm perhaps more drawn to this metaphor than I should be; I think I'm still trying to make up my mind about whether it's really useful, and to what extent.

> cathedrals are accretions of effort over time, no cathedral is ever finished

The basic premise of "How Buildings Learn" by Stewart Brand, co-founder of The WELL, is that the better buildings are those that can and may adapt to different purposes over their life span. Like they say, 'this home has good bones' if the house has good infrastructure and structure. This can also be obviously applied to software construction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn

Interesting notion! It puts me in mind of Levittown. All houses followed an original standard design (or three), but if you go there today, no two are alike. Originally derided as the paragon of uniformity, each house in Levittown has grown and changed to suit its owners.

any link with more information about Levittown?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown

This is the Levittown I'm talking about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_Pennsylvania

This song distills the low regard in which it was held.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes

My comment is based on visits to Levittown -- a friend of mine grew up there.

Though note that "Little Boxes" originally refers to Daly City, California (you can see them when riding BART to or from SFO).

I did not know that. Thank you!

A friend of mine is a very meticulous person once they set their mind on something. So when they were buying a house, they read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people and looked a lot of houses. They had a fun aphorism (don't know how it translates):

There are two kinds of houses: "if" houses and "despite" houses.

An "if" house stay in shape if the roof doesn't leak. A "despite" house stays in shape despite the roof leaking every now and then.

This is because of different design philosophies. More modern chipboard or glass wool usually get destroyed if they get wet. Old fashioned wood can simply be dried (if it doesn't get moldy / rot). Plastic insulation (or plastic based paints) creates moisture traps. Structures don't dry and usually they just rot.

Everything works fine with chipboard, plastic and glass wool IF it never gets wet. This is usually about as far as people think. (Dealing with pointers or lots of global variables is safe if you never make any mistakes.) But the longer the life span of the house, the less likely that is to be true.

[Disclaimer: I edited and published the piece and own theprepared.org] I think the answer is "yes," at least to an extent. I think the big limitation is the degree to which software projects are mission-focused, and also the degree two which they span generations. The former does exist in certain places, but the latter (intergenerational development) is pretty hard to find.

This is a fascinating web site. I was particularly impressed by the section labeled "Tool Guide".

<3 thanks!

"Cathedrals are unfinished. It is just the nature of the beast"

Always mis-read 'beast' as 'breast' in literature. It gladdens your heart and puts a great spin on everything.

An irreverent remark on Hacker News! Attack! Attack!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com