Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Sand City, California
Developer laws, rules, effects, and Borland community membership
I'm sitting in the Starbucks Coffee shop in San City California. Sand City is approximately 35 miles
south of Borland on California Highway 1. I've got my notebook computer plugged in and I'm drinking a Venti
Mocha coffee drink. What could be better? What if every Starbucks (or your favorite coffee house,
fast food restaurant, book store, or other favorite hangout around the world) provided a wireless Internet
connection so that I could post this column to our community web site! Sure, I could use the slow speed cellular phone
that is sitting on the table next to my mocha. With the ubiquitous coffee houses alone, the dream of always being connected to the Internet
at high speeds all around the world will eventually be a reality.
While sitting here, sipping my mocha coffee and thinking about wireless high speed global Internet connections,
I also started thinking about our global Borland community. our members practice their software craft on all of the
continents, in all corners of the world. In my travels,
I've enjoyed visiting many of our members face to face. Lately though, I have been staying a little closer to home. The
main reason has to do less with the tragic events of September 11th in New York and Washington DC and more to do
with the peaceful death of my 90-year old dad,
Angelo Intersimone, that tragic morning.
We have a wonderful developer community. They are brilliant, vibrant, demanding, and caring. They are
a part of changing our world for the better through their hard business and community work. To give you some
insight into where our community members reside, I've done a query of our community membership database using
the country code. The HTML table below contains the sorted results showing the percentage of members from each
country.
I was especially excited to see that a few members had chosen Antarctica in their profile. How nice
it must be to work so close to all of those Linux penguins. Of course, they may have chosen Antartica just because it is cool.
Our membership is made up of developers from every
race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental capability, and sexual orientation.
Developers know no boundaries or limitations. Well, maybe that is an exageration on my part.
There are a few laws, corollaries, rules, and effects worth noting that have something to do with developers and development:
a href="http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/mooreslaw.htm">Moore's Law,
Elzinga's Corollary,
Amdahl's Law,
Gustafson's Law,
Shannon's Law,
Arnold's Laws of documentation,
Brooke's Law,
the Laws of Computer Programming(1 thru 10),
Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology,
Zawinski's Law,
Sturgeon's Law,
Finagle's Law,
Pournelle's Law of Costs and Schedules,
Sattinger's Law,
Zimmerman's Law of Complaints,
the Ninety-Ninety Rule,
the one line fix,
Gates's Law,
the ELIZA effect,
Murphy's Law,
and the speed of light.
Instead of listing the thousands of Murphy's laws and their variants, here is a partial list of web sites that contain additional
laws, rules, effects, corollaries, and more:
computer laws, rules and corollaries,
a complete edition of Murphy's Laws,
W3Perl - Fun - MUrphy, and
Computer Laws.
To all of these, I add one effect of my own. I call it "the programmer proximity effect", which states that
a software program will fail except when the programmer (who wrote it) is standing over the user's shoulder. If you have a favorite, send it to
davidi@borland.com
Community Membership By Country as of October 9, 2001
The following is a snapshot of the Borland community membership by country as of October 9, 2001. We'll have to
work harder to sign up developers from those countries with no members. Tell your co-workers, family, and friends that it is easy and free
to join the Borland Community.
| Country |
% |
| United States |
20.512% |
| Germany |
9.059% |
| United Kingdom |
5.642% |
| Brazil |
4.471% |
| Canada |
4.077% |
| India |
3.916% |
| Korea, Republic of |
3.503% |
| China |
3.192% |
| France |
2.998% |
| Italy |
2.878% |
| Spain |
2.499% |
| Australia |
2.296% |
| Mexico |
1.978% |
| Poland |
1.799% |
| Russian Federation |
1.693% |
| Netherlands |
1.372% |
| Taiwan |
1.307% |
| Turkey |
1.146% |
| Japan |
1.018% |
| Sweden |
1.015% |
| Belgium |
0.908% |
| Argentina |
0.837% |
| Israel |
0.803% |
| South Africa |
0.802% |
| Finland |
0.784% |
| Hong Kong |
0.780% |
| Switzerland |
0.760% |
| Singapore |
0.745% |
| Austria |
0.724% |
| Denmark |
0.668% |
| Colombia |
0.666% |
| Philippines |
0.635% |
| Portugal |
0.581% |
| Czech Republic |
0.567% |
| New Zealand |
0.540% |
| Malaysia |
0.520% |
| Norway |
0.513% |
| Ukraine |
0.484% |
| Romania |
0.462% |
| Hungary |
0.460% |
| Greece |
0.447% |
| Thailand |
0.442% |
| Indonesia |
0.431% |
| Afghanistan |
0.431% |
| Bulgaria |
0.410% |
| Ireland |
0.389% |
| Chile |
0.371% |
| Pakistan |
0.273% |
| Albania |
0.261% |
| Algeria |
0.237% |
| Venezuela |
0.221% |
| Peru |
0.212% |
| Slovak Republic |
0.212% |
| Egypt |
0.208% |
| Croatia, Hrvatska |
0.202% |
| Iran (Islamic Republic of) |
0.183% |
| American Samoa |
0.170% |
| United Arab Emirates |
0.150% |
| Slovenia |
0.148% |
| Andorra |
0.147% |
| Ecuador |
0.143% |
| Yugoslavia |
0.137% |
| Costa Rica |
0.136% |
| Angola |
0.129% |
| Vietnam |
0.124% |
| Antartica |
0.123% |
| Estonia |
0.117% |
| Bolivia |
0.112% |
| Anguilla |
0.111% |
| Belarus |
0.111% |
| Lithuania |
0.110% |
| Saudi Arabia |
0.107% |
| US Minor Outlying Islands |
0.106% |
| Dominican Republic |
0.105% |
| Morocco |
0.099% |
| Jamaica |
0.086% |
| Antigua and Barbuda |
0.086% |
| Iceland |
0.085% |
| Uruguay |
0.084% |
| Guatemala |
0.083% |
| Puerto Rico |
0.079% |
| Kazakhstan |
0.076% |
| Zimbabwe |
0.074% |
| El Salvador |
0.071% |
| Korea, Democratic People's Republic |
0.071% |
| Bangladesh |
0.069% |
| Sri Lanka |
0.067% |
| Latvia |
0.066% |
| Tunisia |
0.065% |
| Barbados |
0.062% |
| Panama |
0.060% |
| Trinidad and Tobago |
0.059% |
| Nigeria |
0.058% |
| Jordan |
0.057% |
| Luxembourg |
0.053% |
| Lebanon |
0.052% |
| Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic |
0.049% |
| Kenya |
0.046% |
| Bahamas |
0.043% |
| Cuba |
0.043% |
| Malta |
0.043% |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
0.042% |
| Moldova, Republic of |
0.042% |
| Armenia |
0.042% |
| Kuwait |
0.041% |
| Cyprus |
0.041% |
| Bahrain |
0.040% |
| Azerbaijan |
0.039% |
| Honduras |
0.032% |
| Nepal |
0.028% |
| Mauritius |
0.028% |
| Ghana |
0.027% |
| Mongolia |
0.027% |
| Paraguay |
0.027% |
| Oman |
0.026% |
| Macau |
0.025% |
| Cameroon |
0.024% |
| Georgia |
0.024% |
| Aruba |
0.023% |
| Uzbekistan |
0.023% |
| Botswana |
0.021% |
| Qatar |
0.019% |
| Sudan |
0.019% |
| Tanzania |
0.019% |
| Haiti |
0.019% |
| Gabon |
0.019% |
| Syrian Arab Republic |
0.018% |
| Nicaragua |
0.018% |
| Zambia |
0.017% |
| Namibia |
0.016% |
| Uganda |
0.015% |
| Libyan Arab Jamahiriya |
0.015% |
| Madagascar |
0.015% |
| Cote d'Ivoire |
0.015% |
| British Indian Ocean Territory |
0.014% |
| Kyrgyzstan |
0.014% |
| Reunion Island |
0.014% |
| Brunei Darussalam |
0.014% |
| Belize |
0.013% |
| Cambodia |
0.012% |
| Guadeloupe |
0.011% |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
0.011% |
| Benin |
0.011% |
| Burkina Faso |
0.011% |
| Bhutan |
0.010% |
| Fiji |
0.010% |
| Liechtenstein |
0.010% |
| Bermuda |
0.010% |
| Ethiopia |
0.010% |
| Netherlands Antilles |
0.010% |
| Falkland Islands (Malvina) |
0.009% |
| Yemen |
0.009% |
| Zaire |
0.009% |
| French Guiana |
0.009% |
| French Polynesia |
0.008% |
| Saint Lucia |
0.008% |
| Greenland |
0.008% |
| Senegal |
0.008% |
| New Caledonia |
0.008% |
| Congo, Republic of |
0.007% |
| Martinique |
0.007% |
| French Southern Territories |
0.007% |
| Virgin Islands (USA) |
0.007% |
| East Timor |
0.007% |
| Suriname |
0.007% |
| Swaziland |
0.007% |
| Guyana |
0.007% |
| Mozambique |
0.006% |
| Turkmenistan |
0.006% |
| Cap Verde |
0.006% |
| Dominica |
0.006% |
| Guam |
0.006% |
| Holy See (City Vatican State) |
0.006% |
| Malawi |
0.006% |
| Faroe Islands |
0.005% |
| Gambia |
0.005% |
| Papua New Guinea |
0.005% |
| Christmas Island |
0.005% |
| Rwanda |
0.005% |
| Tajikistan |
0.005% |
| Vanuatu |
0.005% |
| Iraq |
0.004% |
| Maldives |
0.004% |
| Mali |
0.004% |
| Monaco |
0.004% |
| San Marino |
0.004% |
| Burundi |
0.004% |
| Mauritania |
0.004% |
| Chad |
0.004% |
| Northern Mariana Islands |
0.004% |
| Togo |
0.004% |
| Virgin Islands (British) |
0.004% |
| Western Samoa |
0.004% |
| Central African Republic |
0.003% |
| Micronesia, Federal State of |
0.003% |
| Pitcairn Island |
0.003% |
| Seychelles |
0.003% |
| Cayman Islands |
0.003% |
| Djibouti |
0.003% |
| Equatorial Guinea |
0.003% |
| Eritrea |
0.003% |
| Lao People's Democratic Republic |
0.003% |
| Bouvet Island |
0.003% |
| Comoros |
0.003% |
| Gibraltar |
0.003% |
| Guinea |
0.003% |
| Kiribati |
0.003% |
| Lesotho |
0.003% |
| Palau |
0.002% |
| Tonga |
0.002% |
| Heard and McDonald Islands |
0.002% |
| Niue |
0.002% |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis |
0.002% |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
0.002% |
| Turks and Caicos Islands |
0.002% |
| Tuvalu |
0.002% |
| Cook Islands |
0.002% |
| Grenada |
0.002% |
| Myanmar |
0.002% |
| Niger |
0.002% |
| Somalia |
0.002% |
| Wallis and Futuna Islands |
0.002% |
| Western Sahara |
0.002% |
| Mayotte |
0.002% |
| Montserrat |
0.002% |
| Nauru |
0.002% |
| Norfolk Island |
0.002% |
| Sierra Leone |
0.002% |
| St. Helena |
0.002% |
| Cocos (Keeling) Islands |
0.001% |
| Guinea-Bissau |
0.001% |
| St. Pierre and Miquelon |
0.001% |
| Liberia |
0.001% |
| Marshall Islands |
0.001% |
| Solomon Islands |
0.001% |
| Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands |
0.001% |
| Sao Tome and Principe |
0.001% |
| Tokelau |
0.000% |
| Ascension Island |
0.000% |
| Congo, Democratic People's Republic |
0.000% |
| Guernsey |
0.000% |
| Isle of Man |
0.000% |
| Jersey |
0.000% |
| Palestinian Territories |
0.000% |
Keep on Hacking
I'll see some of you soon at our Borland conferences in
Melbourne
and
Tokyo.
I will see the rest of you on
the Internet, in our newsgroups, in our chat rooms, on email, or in a town near you in 2002.
David Intersimone "David I"
Vice President, Developer Relations
davidi@borland.com
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