Henry Baker <hbaker@netcom.com> wrote:
+---------------
| > You may be referring to Dr. Brooks' classic "There is no Silver Bullet"
| > where he argues persuasively that there is no change in technology that
| > can produce an order of magnitude improvement in programmer productivity.
| 
| Is this article on the web?  Does anyone have a URL?
+---------------

Probably not, because Addison-Wesley is still making money off of it.  ;-}

However, I recommend doing as I did Sunday afternoon and springing for the
$23 bucks to buy Brooks's "The Mythical Man-Month, 20th Anniversary Edition
with Four New Chapters" [at Computer Literacy, for those in SiValley].

He & the publisher chose to reprint the original 1975 text unrevised (except
for some typos) as Chapters 1-15 (comprising a little over half of the new
book). Chapter 16 contains the 1986 "No Silver Bullet" article, Chapter 17
is "'No Silver Bullet' Refired" (written 9 years later), Ch.  18 is a
"catalog" of the bald statements/propositions of "The Mythical Man-Month"
with the explanation/stories stripped off (for reference), and last but
not least, Ch. 19 is a 20-yr retrospective, updating his opinions on "TMMM"
to 1995.

IMHO, well worth the price for "NSB" and "NSBR" alone!


-Rob

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Rob Warnock, 7L-551		rpw3@sgi.com
Silicon Graphics, Inc.		http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/
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