Well, sure, thats one simplistic way of looking at it. Code is code.
I think the more accurate way would be that scale has absolutely everything to do with it, from the way you develop your systems at the very lowest layer (architecture, code layout, optimisations) to the very highest (the UI).
Designing software for 1,000,000,000 users is an entirely different ballpark than for 1,000. Different trade offs, different restrictions, different everything.
There is a reason Google had to invent their own freaking database (using atomic clocks to handle transactions no less) to get to their scale, and it's not because they were a bit bored and fancied giving it a go.
> Designing software for 1,000,000,000 users is an entirely different ballpark than for 1,000. Different trade offs, different restrictions, different everything.
This is in part what I meant by different mindset.
For web developers, dealing with the complexity caused by massive scale is inevitable, and yes, for them it’s different everything.
Desktop and mobile developers are essentially shielded from that complexity by slow networks. It’s technically possible to VPN into DC and write mobile apps as they were a server app, but even ignoring security considerations, this is usually wrong approach. Within DC you have 0.5ms latency, over mobile Internet it’s 200ms best case. These 2-3 orders of magnitude make great difference on how you should design software.
Correct, but with a few users you can get away by cutting corners, with lots of users you will have MxN potential corner cases you will have to deal with. More users -> more bugs.
I think the more accurate way would be that scale has absolutely everything to do with it, from the way you develop your systems at the very lowest layer (architecture, code layout, optimisations) to the very highest (the UI).
Designing software for 1,000,000,000 users is an entirely different ballpark than for 1,000. Different trade offs, different restrictions, different everything.
There is a reason Google had to invent their own freaking database (using atomic clocks to handle transactions no less) to get to their scale, and it's not because they were a bit bored and fancied giving it a go.