The Eternal Temporary: How a Quick Fix Became a 30-Year Legacy in Windows
+ FREE access to my video course
On a rainy Thursday morning, in late 1994, Dave Plummer, a developer at Microsoft, was whipping up a simple piece of Windows NT — the new kid on the block. It’s the Format drive dialog box, which is meant to be a quick fix — a temporary patch until the elegant UI comes along.
Except, that elegant UI never arrived.
Fast forward to today, and that stopgap solution is still here with us, unchanged, in Windows 11 — as Dave Plummer recounted in his post on X, published on March 25, 2024.
Microsoft forgot to update this Windows feature for 30 years!
So what does that say about the systems we build and the legacy we leave behind?
This quirky tale isn’t just for laughs or a footnote in the annals of software history. It’s a window into the soul of software architecture. It opens up a big conversation about something called technical debt.
Technical Debt
Yes, it’s a term that might evoke images of financial doom and gloom, but in our world, it represents the cumulative cost of corners cut and temporary solutions left unchecked. Think of it like that drawer in your house where you keep all sorts of things “just for now” and then end up never sorting it out.
In software, these are the little shortcuts we take, intending to fix them up later. But just like that drawer, sometimes we don’t get around to it. The Windows format dialog box is a textbook case of technical debt that never got paid off. It’s also a testament to the enduring power of the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy.
But here’s a fun thought:
Not everything that’s “not broken” needs fixing.
Sometimes, these old parts of software are like familiar friends — reliable, even if they’re a bit quirky. It’s a beautiful balance of figuring out when to update and innovate, and when to say, “You know what? This works.”
But sometimes, “not broken” isn’t good enough. In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, what works today might be woefully inadequate tomorrow.
So our job as architects isn’t just to build structures that stand up; it’s to anticipate, change, and adapt. We need to keep our eyes open for opportunities to make things better. We need also to have the courage to break, remake, and innovate, even when it ain’t broken.
Because who knows? The next simple fix you make could be part of someone’s story 30 years from now.
More Quirky Tales From the Software History
The birth of JavaScript
The Windows format dialog isn’t the only quirky tale from the software history.
Let’s journey back to the mid-’90s, when the internet was still finding its feet, and developers were the rock stars of the tech world.
At that time Brendan Eich, a coding maestro at Netscape, was racing against the clock to create something extraordinary. With the browser wars heating up, Netscape needed a secret weapon to take on the giant Microsoft and its Internet Explorer.
Eich was on a mission to whip up a programming language that could bring web pages to life, making them interactive and dynamic. And guess what? He did it in just 10 days.
That’s right, in less than two weeks, Eich laid down the groundwork for what we now know as JavaScript.
Eich, with his deep dive into programming language lore from his days at Silicon Graphics, managed to pull off a feat. He didn’t just create a language; he sparked a revolution. JavaScript, initially just a prototype to tide things over, quickly became the lingua franca of the web.
Today, JavaScript is everywhere. It’s in the very fabric of the internet, making websites sing and dance, pop and slide, with over 95% of them using it in some form or another.
It’s gone beyond the browser too, powering servers, sprucing up mobile apps, and even bringing desktop applications to life.
And the best part?
It’s made coding accessible to everyone — from seasoned developers to designers dabbling in code for the first time.
JIT Compilation
Let’s take a quick detour now into the tech time machine, back to the early ’70s, when the concept of “just-in-time” (JIT) compilation first popped onto the scene.
Originally seen as a clever workaround for the sluggishness often seen in interpreted languages, the JIT compilation turned out to be a game-changer.
It allows for dynamic optimization of code, by focusing on frequently executed sections (hotspots) to improve performance. The JIT compiler can apply various optimization techniques, such as inlining function calls, eliminating dead code, and optimizing loops, to enhance the program’s efficiency.
This was particularly beneficial for dynamic programming languages like JavaScript and Python, which were adopted for large-scale applications. These languages often suffer from reduced performance due to their dynamic nature, where the types of variables are not known at compile time.
JIT compilation enables these languages to achieve performance levels comparable to statically typed languages by analyzing the code at runtime and generating optimized machine code based on the actual types encountered during execution.
Final Thought
The JavaScript’s journey from a stopgap solution to the backbone of modern web development is a reminder that sometimes, the best things come from the most unexpected places and that the magic can happen when necessity meets ingenuity.
The world of software is vast and full of wonders. So let’s keep exploring it together, one line of code at a time.
As we wrap up this dive into the quirks and charms of software development, I have a question for you.
Have you ever encountered a quick fix or technical debt in your projects that turned into a “permanent feature?”
What was it, and how did it impact your project? Tell me about it in the comment section. I’m all ears.
See you next time!
My Recent Pieces
🎬 Hidden Codes, High Stakes: How the XZ Attack Redefines Software Security Norms
📖 Hidden Codes, High Stakes: How the XZ Attack Redefines Software Security Norms
🎬 API Design Explained: From Architecture Styles to Hands-On Case Study
📖 API Design Explained: From Architecture Styles to Hands-On Case Studies
🎬 Systems Thinking Explained & How to Apply It as a Software Engineer
📖 Why Software Developers Need To Adopt a Systems Thinker’s Mindset
Want More?
Join 30K+ students and get FREE access 🎉 (available for a limited time) to my Udemy video course: Web Performance 101: Your Guide to Boost Your Web Apps
Level up your software architecture skills with my new Udemy video course: "Decoding Software Architecture: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."📚
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more updates and insights 🧠💡.