This is a lovely article. Software is a possibly a) errant and b) misinterpreted operational semantics of some other semantic horizons of contractual or implicit expectations. Knuth's Literate Programming was onto something. We inhabit a world of word problems and even faulty realizations of rarer formal specifications. Claims concerning "phenomena in the world" drive maintenance and enhancement regimens.
The hard part is reaching a committed niche in the user base, whether paying customer or audience kinds. Software tools generalize from and for niche sponsors with more specific needs. Software growth is then the "consensual delusion" of feature set and paying constituency accretion. Platform heterogeneity "churn" offers both big risks and big opportunities. Never a dull moment in software development.
You may be joking, but I think the way in which this is true explains Apple’s success, even though they’ve generally released products that are less featureful and significantly more expensive than their competition.
