Why database modules are incomplete

[Andrew Kuchling]

> For me being a developer, rarely have I noticed something amazing
> produced by a man or woman working alone.  It has been my experience
> that most great software is the product of a group's effort.  

A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software
systems have been designed by committees and built as part of
multipart projects, those software systems that have excited
passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few
designing minds, great designers. Consider Unix, APL, Pascal, Modula,
the Smalltalk interface, even Fortran; and contrast them with Cobol,
PL/I, Algol, MVS/370, and MS-DOS.
    -- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
(In _Mythical Man-Month_, I think)

--amk