Examining Wirth's Law: Does Software Bloat Continue Despite Hardware Advances?
By
signa11
3mo ago· 14 min readenInsight
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Golden Brown
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The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
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Summary
The article examines Wirth's Law - the observation that software is getting slower faster than hardware becomes faster - through the lens of modern computing developments, particularly large language models (LLMs). It traces the concept from Niklaus Wirth's 1995 essay "A Plea for Lean Software" through historical examples of software bloat, and explores whether LLMs represent the ultimate manifestation of this trend or a potential solution. The piece discusses how software efficiency has declined despite hardware advances, with examples from text editors to modern applications, and considers whether AI-driven code generation might reverse or accelerate this trend.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledSoftware is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.
About 25 years ago, an interactive text editor could be designed with as little as 8,000 bytes of storage. (Modern program editors request 100 times that much!)
Are LLMs the final blow in the war against Wirth's law?
The fundamental tension between software efficiency and hardware advancement continues to shape computing evolution.
Are LLMs the final blow in the war against Wirth's law?
