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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

This is a reaction to Grosch's Law, "Computing power increases as the square of the price".[1] In the early 1980s, people still believed that. Seymour Cray did. John McCarthy did when I was at Stanford around then. It didn't last into the era of microprocessors.

Amusingly, in the horse-powered era, once railroads started working, but trucks didn't work yet, there was a "last mile" problem - getting stuff from the railroad station or dock to the final destination. The 19th century solution was to develop a bigger breed of horse - the Shire Horse.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_horse

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The article you linked doesn't support your anecdote about the root of the Shire Horse. It describes their history dating back centuries before railways. Their biggest use seems to have been hauling material to and from ports, not trains.

Sure it does. Shires go back a ways, but they were not bred in quantity until the 1850s or so. "In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were large numbers of Shires, and many were exported to the United States." Before and after that period, those big guys were an exotic breed. That's the railroad but pre-truck period.

(I've owned a Percheron, and have known some Shires.)

When you cite a source for something, the source should justify the thing you're claiming. The relevant part of your post to the thread was that "The 19th century solution was to develop a bigger breed of horse." It is entirely contrary to what the Wikipedia article says - "The breed was established in the mid-eighteenth century, although its origins are much older".

(relatives have owned Friesian's and Clydesdale's and Norwegian Fjording Horses, but it's neither here nor there)

Seems like you are reading the engineer definition of "develop", and OP is using the general english definition.

I think op is using “develop” as in :

To advance; to further; to prefect; to make to increase; to promote the growth of. “We must develop our own resources to the utmost. Jowett (Thucyd).”

Rather than develop as in the contemporary software engineering sense synonymous with create.

In this sense, the breed was further developed to serve railway terminals from the original breed created to service maritime ports.

That other definition doesn't really seem to fit either, but I acknowledge that if they had used a different word ("adopted a bigger breed" or "popularized a bigger breed" or something) then it would fit with the anecdote.

In working animal husbandry, breeds are rarely static and are typically selectively bred for the task at hand. As that task or its environment evolves, the breed is further developed or even forked to accommodate the new conditions.

So I think “developed” is fairly appropriate here, though “adapted” might have been more clear.

It's not just software engineering, a mechanical engineer might develop a new kind of coffee machine.

In engineering we are accustomed to getting involved early in the creation process, and our usage of "develop" reflects this bias.

Outside of that bubble, "develop" is very explicit that the thing already exists. For example, developing a musical theme, a muscle, or a country.

Yeah, it is engineering in general, I think you are right.

Well, would the anecdote work if you bumped it back a few centuries and swapped trains for ships?

Indeed, horse drawn station wagons were developed to carry luggage and cargo to train stations.

Doh!!!

I hadn't twigged on the origin of "station wagon". TIL.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_wagon#Name>

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