> God I hate the web. The engineering equivalent of a car made of duct tape.
Most of the complex thing I have seen being made (or contributed to) needed duct tape sooner or later. Engineering is the art of trade-offs, of adapting to changing requirements (that can appear due to uncontrollable events external to the project), technology and costs.
Related, this is how the first long distance automobile trip was done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz#First_cross-countr... . Seems to me it had quite some duct tape.
Why would you compare Web to that? A first fax message would be more appropriate comparison.
Web is not a new thing and hardly a technical experiment of a few people any more.
If you add the time since announcing the concept of Web to that trip date, you have a very decent established industry already. With many sport and mass production designs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cars_introduced_in_19...
For me the web is something along the lines at the definition of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web to sum up "...universal linked information system...". I think the fax misses many aspects of the core definition to be a good comparison.
Not sure what is your point about "decent established industry" if we relate to "duct tape". I see two possibilities:
a) you imply that the web does not have a decent established industry (but I would guess not).
b) you would claim that there was no "duct tape" in 1924 car industry. I am no expert but I would refer you to the article describing what was the procedure to start the car at https://www.quora.com/How-do-people-start-their-cars-in-the-..., to quote:
> Typical cold-start routine (common 1930s workflow)
> 1. Set hand choke (pull knob).
> 2. Set throttle lever to slight fast‑idle.
> 3. Retard spark if manual advance present.
> 4. Engage starter (electric) or use hand crank.
> 5. Once running, push choke in gradually, advance spark, reduce throttle.
Not sure about your opinion but compared to what a car's objective is (move from point A to point B) to me that sounds rather involved. Not sure if it qualifies as "duct-tape" but definitely it is not a "nicely implemented system that just works".
To resume my point: I think on average progress is slower and harder than people think. And that is mostly because people do not have exposure to the work people are doing to improve things until something can become more "widely available".