[Trombone-l] Trombone is cool because it is simple

[Howard Spindel]

At 07:18 AM 3/6/2007, Eric Edwards wrote:

>Just look at the software and computer industry,  I don't think there's ANY
>piece of software written that doesn't have some kind of bug or flaw.
>Microshaft is a leading example.

In defense of programmers (I was one for 30 years), it's impossible 
to write an non-trivial program that is bug-free.  It's even hard to 
write bug-free trivial programs - there's an example in a book called 
"The Psychology of Computer Programmers" of a programmer who brought 
a 13-line program in for peer review, and the peers were able to find 
multiple issues with those 13 lines.

That is not to say that I don't think that programs could be much 
better than they are.  The bell curve says that few coders are going 
to be really excellent at their jobs, and that the vast majority of 
code will be written by mediocre coders - especially at companies 
that don't recognize this fact and attempt to mitigate it.  Just like 
in trombone players, the difference between an excellent coder and a 
mediocre one is HUGE!

More on topic, I am happy that there are still quite a number of 
talented trombone repairmen who are dedicated to their 
professions.  John Sandhagen just worked on a slide for me, and it 
never worked so well before, not even fresh out of the box.

In regard to the subject line:  I'd say that trombone is cool because 
it's *mechanically* simple.  But the mechanical simplicity throws 
more onto the shoulders of the player, so I don't think playing the 
trombone is simpler than other instruments.

Howard