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by coldnebo 3536 days ago
Software componentization never took off because every attempt at it either leaks abstractions like a sieve or is so purely functional as to be impractical for real world use.

Shall I list the componentization tech of yore? CORBA, OpenDoc, Java Server Faces, COM, DCOM (oh god, CORBA again!), SGML (the original component framework), XML zoo (oh god, CORBA a third time).. JSON zoo, (a flippin' fourth time, are you kidding?!)

componentization is something we're still figuring out. Alan Kay and SmallTalk were the closest to get to it (see previous comment about practicality though) and the mainstream just now is starting to think of JS and Ruby as "novel". NPM? Please.

We have a long way to go before componentization actually works. So yes, I guess I agree that it's simply easier to reinvent things to a specific context than solve the problem of sharing code context-free.
2 comments
pjc50 3536 days ago
You forgot microservices. I'd forgotten Java Server Faces, was that related to Java Beans?

I'll join you in a glass of "oh god, CORBA!" At least one good thing about the web is that people have given up hoping that RPC could be transparent.

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felixgallo 3536 days ago
Heh. https://www.grpc.io
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zigzigzag 3536 days ago
CORBA and DCOM were really not great but I don't think you're qualified to have a go at these things if you think that SGML is related to DCOM or that XML and JSON are "componentization tech".

I'd also note that despite how unfashionable it is and was, COM was a remarkably successful component framework. A lot of Windows apps use COM heavily and not because they were required to do so - they componentized themselves using COM because they wanted to and it delivered real value to them.

In addition, I'm not sure how you are defining "component", but the term is rather similar to library, and modern apps frequently pull in enormous quantities of libraries. It worked out OK, actually.

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