Improving the Metaphor of Software as Manufacturing  by
chromatic  Related link:  I've never liked the metaphor of
software development as manufacturing. For one thing, it's
emotionally disturbing to hear programmers alluded to as
assembly line workers. More seriously, it confuses intangible
software with tangible items.  Reeves has it right: the source
code is the design. That's not intended as an excuse for cowboy
coding, nor is it a proto-justification for agile development
(though it is clearly connected in many intelligent ways). It's
just the fundamental nature of software -- perfect duplication
is easy!  As my friend Jim Shore likes to point out, it's the
compiler that actually builds software. There's your assembly
line. The most important part of the assembly line, as I see the
metaphor, is the perfect duplication of a physical product.  Of
course, the people on the other side of this debate seem to
prefer the cheap hordes of replaceable labor as the important
point of the image. I think trying to bu