The issue with simplicity is that computing is a complex problem.
It's all well and good to say "Just keep it simple!" It's another to implement that.
I built and maintain a fairly popular RubyMotion library. It's goal is pretty simple: DSL out the ViewController hierarchy management and make it manageable for the application developer.
Every bit of code I add to what is now a fairly mature and full featured system pains me. But every bit of code addresses some edge case that we didn't think of, but which is quite valid.
An OS (like Linux, Unix, Windows) has orders of magnitude more issues to deal with than I do. In order to keep the system simple for users, they often have to add complexity to their code.
Simple for users just isn't the same as simple under the hood.
>Simple for users just isn't the same as simple under the hood.
Right, and exactly that is the reason, why we are in desperate need for really professional computer scientists (or programmers, how you want to name it). But the trend is the other way around. Everybody is searching for the quick solution and the cheapest programmers, or hackers (I even see many job offers that go in the direction hacker rather than professionals).
It takes a real professional to cope with the complexity and reduce it to the minimal value. But in our current trend, we will thinks getting worse and worse, because we have far to much coding and far to less professionals (and even they can't afford to make a clean job oftentimes).
It's all well and good to say "Just keep it simple!" It's another to implement that.
I built and maintain a fairly popular RubyMotion library. It's goal is pretty simple: DSL out the ViewController hierarchy management and make it manageable for the application developer.
Every bit of code I add to what is now a fairly mature and full featured system pains me. But every bit of code addresses some edge case that we didn't think of, but which is quite valid.
An OS (like Linux, Unix, Windows) has orders of magnitude more issues to deal with than I do. In order to keep the system simple for users, they often have to add complexity to their code.
Simple for users just isn't the same as simple under the hood.