To all of you thank you for your time and commitment to the success of this book.
Special thanks to Mr. Sheck Cho, the executive editor that not only encouraged this project,
but also provided strategic and tactical support throughout the publishing process.
xvii
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
As human beings, we are passionate about new ideas that promise to transform our lives and
create new opportunities. We also tend to rapidly replace old technologies with new ones. Ours
is a versatile society that runs on tomorrow??™s software piled on top of the technology layers of
yesterday and today.
Try to imagine the next breakthrough that will supersede today??™s examples of human
ingenuity.Will it be miniature software installed on microwave ovens or refrigerators that monitors
a diet prescribed by a personal nutritionist? Could it be a smart software component that not only
designs itself but also architects its own operating production environment? Or perhaps a virtual
software development platform that enables business and technology personnel to jointly build
applications with goggles and gloves?
These futuristic software concepts would probably contribute yet another layer to our
already complex computing environments, one requiring resources to maintain and budgets to
support. This layer would sit on top of technological artifacts accumulated over the past few
decades that are already difficult to manage.
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